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The Six Ingredients for Successful, Equitable Bike Share

As found in an ongoing Harvard study and reported in the New York Times, “commuting time has emerged as the single strongest factor in the odds of escaping poverty.” In other words, ensuring reliable, efficient, convenient transportation is fundamental to efforts to reduce income inequity in the United States today. Cheaper to implement than all other transit modes, scalable, low-cost, and flexible, bike share programs can be part of the solution. Six essential ingredients – scale and density, safe places to ride, focused outreach, smart pricing, connections to transit, and policies that link bike share and employment opportunities – can help ensure that this new mobility option is an option for all.

In Philadelphia, a thoughtful and targeted outreach campaign has made Indego an instant success. In New York City, the city’s commitment to a walkable station density ensures that Citi Bike provides a high-quality transportation option in the entire service area. In Los Angeles, bike share membership is connected to other public transit. Bike share operators like Motivate are making hiring and manufacturing decisions that open up job opportunities across the U.S. Hear lessons from these cities as you work to improve, or build, a bike share system in your community.