Bike Pottstown is the first free community bike sharing program in the Greater Philadelphia region. Built upon successful models of bike sharing programs worldwide, Bike Pottstown is renewing Pottstown as a bicycle friendly community. Since the program was made available to the public in June of 2008 over 400 bikes have been shared by over 230 individuals, and has been featured by NBC 10, Fox 29, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Pottstown Mercury.
Bike Pottstown is the first free community bicycle sharing program offered in the Greater Philadelphia region. Bike Pottstown began in June 2008, and to date over 400 bikes have been shared to over 230 individuals. Users, although primarily from the Pottstown area have come from as far as Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, New York and Virginia. Bike Pottstown is a collaborative partnership with many groups in the Borough of Pottstown.
Partners including: GVF Transportation, Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, Preservation Pottstown, Tri-County Bicycles, and the TriCounty Chamber of Commerce, to name a few.
Lending to the success of Bike Pottstown is the bicycle friendly environment in the Borough of Pottstown. The topography of the borough is generally flat, and to add to that, bike lanes are present on High Street through the heart of downtown Pottstown. Easily accessed from downtown is the Schuylkill River Trail West trailhead, which is located in Pottstown’s Riverfront Park. These factors have fostered the growth of Bike Pottstown.
Since the program has started in June, the response from the community has surpassed all initial expectations. The bikes, beach cruiser style bike, are available at no cost to the user, and are easy to operate. The primary users of Bike Pottstown are the residents of the borough, although people from throughout the region have taken part as well. The bikes are being used almost equally for recreation and for running errands in the borough.
The program has been featured in the local media by Fox 29, NBC 10, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Pottstown Mercury. Due in part to the media recognition, the program has seen increased ridership every month of operation.
Bike Pottstown is a sustainable program by offering clean, environmentally friendly transportation. The bikes are available at Tri-County Bicycles in the heart of downtown Pottstown. This location, combined with the baskets equipped on every bike, allow users to take the bike to run errands downtown rather than drive from store to store. The program provides users a free form of recreation, cycling, which otherwise involves purchasing a bicycle to participate.
The simplicity of Bike Pottstown makes it very easy to be replicated. Bike sharing, although new to the Philadelphia region is not a new or innovative idea. The Bike Pottstown program has been modeled after similar programs implemented domestically and internationally. The program was relatively inexpensive to start, and even less expensive to operate. The simplicity of its design allows communities with similar demographics to Pottstown to replicate the program. GVF Transportation, who managed the start-up of Bike Pottstown, is discussing replicating the program with other communities in the greater Philadelphia region.
Bike Pottstown has opened the door for bike sharing in greater Philadelphia, and has shown that the concept is viable. There has been no damage, or theft of the bikes, and no reported injuries resulting from sharing the bikes. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and shows this region is ready to start bike sharing.
The results of Bike Pottstown have surpassed even the most conservative initial estimates. In every category that has been recorded, the results have been interesting to tally, and exciting to report.
By all accounts, the program has been successful in its first year of operation. The initial success of the program allows it to be continued in 2009. The most recent usage data was compiled during the month of November, and reflects participation from June 2, 2008 through November 5, 2008. During that period the bikes were shared 439 times to 237 individuals. Out of the 237 individual users, 125 were male and 98 were female, the remainder did not respond. Each month the program has been operating, ridership increased.
The bikes are available for check out beginning at 10 AM through 5 PM. The bikes have typically been checked out between 10 AM and 2 PM, with the 11 AM hour showing the most usage. Of the 439 check-outs 83 include intent of use information. Although the primary intent was for recreation, 19 trips, approximately 30% of the check outs with this information provided were to run errands. Those 19 trips might have otherwise involved an automobile trip had the bikes not been available.
Bike usage was evenly distributed across the days of the week, with exception to Sunday, when Tri-County Bicycle, the sharing location, is closed and the bikes are not available. In total, bikes were shared for 580 hours, with the median time out 1 ½ hours. Since the bikes were not equipped with any device for measuring distance or speed, the total mileage could not be calculated.
The most interesting result in all the categories recorded was age. As part of the check-out process, every user was required to show a valid form of identification. From that we were able to collect age information for every user. Over 93% of the users were under the age of 65 however, the oldest user was 80 years old. The median age of a user was 40 years old, with the 21 to 44 age group comprising over half the users. This is a much older demographic than what we initially predicted.
The success of Bike Pottstown is not only shown in the usage numbers, but in the effect it has had on the community. Bike Pottstown has spurred a renewed interest in cycling in the borough. Preservation Pottstown, the organization operating Bike Pottstown is installing bike racks throughout the borough to better serve every cyclist in Pottstown, not just Bike Pottstown users. On many occasions families have used the bikes for an afternoon riding together. Another gentleman has checked out a bike over thirty times to go to and from work. Bike Pottstown is a community program that the residents of Pottstown have embraced, have used extensively, and rely on to improve their quality of life.
