Under a proposal announced Thursday by the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville, the Bay Area Bike Share program plans to increase its numbers from 700 to 7,000 bikes and expand into the East Bay. The Chronicle reports that the number of bikes in Oakland would be 850, with 400 in Berkeley and 100 in Emeryville. Here in SF, numbers would shoot from 328 to 4,500.
“It’s awesome,” said Supervisor Scott Wiener who has long been a friend to the program. “This is exactly what we all wanted to happen.” Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement, "The proposed expansion of this popular bike share program will help residents and visitors move around our diverse San Francisco neighborhoods, and around the Bay Area region more easily."
Last year, a company called Motivate bought the pilot program previously run by Alta Bicycle Share, which had "significant management problems," the Chronicle writes. Motivate runs bike-share programs in New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Yes, corporate sponsors will be sought for the program, so soon this could be the Levi's Bike Share or the Facebook Bike Share, as it is in New York with Citi Bike.
A Metropolitan Transportation Commission committee will consider the measure soon before the full commission votes on it later this spring. If it's approved, installation of the new bike stations would take place over 2016 and 2017.