Decatur council considering bike-share program

Feb. 5—The Decatur City Council will vote Monday on whether to begin a bike-share program that would allow low-cost rentals from three bike racks that likely would be located in downtown Decatur and at two city parks.

Kelly Thomas, Decatur Downtown Redevelopment Authority executive director, last week asked the City Council to consider a bike-share agreement with Tandem Mobility. Decatur-Morgan County Tourism also is pushing the proposal.

Thomas said the project would place three bike stations in the city with five bikes at each station, with Blue Cross/Blue Shield footing the $30,000 contract for the first year.

"We're asking the city to approve this bike-share agreement at no charge" to the city, Thomas said.

Thomas said a bike rental would cost $2 per hour. The charge would go through the Movatic app, which the user would have to download in order to participate.

"They will not be 'bike litter,' as some people want to call them," Thomas said. "Once you finish with the bike you have to return it to the station for your credit card to quit being charged, so you can't just drop it on the street."

She said the tentative sites for the stations will be at the Alabama Center for the Arts, Rhodes Ferry Park and Point Mallard Park.

Thomas said the revenue from rental fees would go to the city every two weeks through a third-party payment agency. The bike-share contract would be up for renewal after a year.

She said the City Council can do whatever it wants with the rental revenue. Her suggestion is to "use the money to buy additional bikes to lease the following year and increase the number of stations."

Huntsville implemented the same bike-share program, which it and several other cities that participate call "Blue Bikes," in 2020.

Karla Bolin, membership and operations manager for Downtown Huntsville Inc., said Blue Bikes has a fleet of 30 bicycles distributed over eight stations in Huntsville. Most are in or just outside the core downtown area.

"We get a yearly report, and usage has increased almost every year," Bolin said. "Our median ride time in 2022 was 40.1 minutes."

Bolin said Tandem does a good job tracking the bikes and performing routine maintenance.

"Tandem will check the bikes and, if there's a rogue bike, go looking for it," Bolin said.

She said Tandem offers a regular bike, which Huntsville uses, and pedal-assist models. Each bike has handle brakes with a basket on the front. Child-sized bikes and child seats aren't available in Huntsville.

If approved, the bike-share program would be the second Blue Cross/Blue Shield-sponsored exercise project in Decatur. Last year, the health insurance provider sponsored a Fitness Court that the city placed at Wilson Morgan Park near the Decatur Animal Shelter. The company also added fitness courts in Hartselle and Athens.

"Our Fitness Court is well used," Parks and Recreation Director Jason Lake said. "I've gotten a lot of good feedback. If it's a pretty day when people are walking (on the park's gravel trail), there's almost always people on the Fitness Court."

Lake said the department is also considering a kayak-share project that's similar to the bike-share program that Thomas proposed.

"We've been working with (state) Sen. (Arthur) Orr (R-Decatur) on some places to create kayak entry spots for the kayak trail he recently helped create," Lake said. "We're in the process now of getting information about the kayak-sharing program and how it works."

Thomas said she talked with Tandem about continuing the bike stations for a second year "if we have good usage, which is tracked by the app. We would like to present that to Blue Cross/Blue Shield for a second year of sponsorship instead of the city having to pay for it."

She said data should help in determining the best locations for the bike racks.

"They can track the number of uses and which stations are being used the most," Thomas said. "With all of the data tracking, we should be able to tell which stations are the best utilized. If one is not being used, we can relocate it."

Councilman Kyle Pike said he's used similar bike-share programs in other cities and he knows they've been successful. He said the Blue Cross/Blue Shield sponsorship "is huge because there's no initial cost to the city. We could use the first year as a pilot."

He pointed out that the city has been developing the Bill Sims Bike Trail for a number of years. This trail starts at Point Mallard and runs along the Tennessee River past Rhodes Ferry Park before going along the railroad tracks and into Southwest Decatur.

"The shared bike program could get people downtown and around the city," Pike said. "Point Mallard is a great area because of the bike trail and the campground."

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.