UPDATE: Here’s Planning Director Amanda Thompson’s description of what this work session tonight is all about…

 The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition received funding to conduct a feasibility study for a bike share system for the City of Atlanta and Decatur. The study included an overview of existing bike share systems in the United States – their funding, how they are administered and what kind of technology they use, suggested where stations could be installed over time and cost estimates for implementing a sharing system. Rebecca and Bradley Davis, one of the consultants, will present what we have found to date.

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There’s a work session on the Decatur City Commission’s agenda this evening titled “Bike Share Feasibility Study”.

Wikipedia defines bike share programs as “… a service in which bicycles are made available for shared use to individuals who do not own them. Bicycle sharing systems can be divided into two general categories: “Community Bike programmes” organized mostly by local community groups or non-profit organizations; and “Smart Bike programmmes” implemented by government agencies, sometimes in a public-private partnership. The central concept of these systems is to provide free or affordable access to bicycles for short-distance trips in an urban area as an alternative to motorized public transport or private vehicles, thereby reducing traffic congestion, noise, and air pollution. Bicycle sharing systems have also been cited as a way to solve the “last mile” problem and connect users to public transit networks.^[3]“

Now you may be saying to yourself…Did he just Wikipedia “bike sharing”?  Yes.  Yes I did.  That’s what I do when I don’t have further info yet.  (And it’s because I hadn’t asked the city about it until this moment.  No one is dragging their feet, except me of course.  I’ll update the post once I have more info.)

Lots of large cities have bike share programs already in place, including Denver, Minneapolis, Boulder CO, Boston, Kansas City and of course Chattanooga, TN – who is, according to some, currently “eating Atlanta’s lunch“.  NYC and Chicago also have plans to launch bike share programs this year.  Smaller cities like Bridgeport, Connecticut; Portland, Maine; and Fort Collins, Colorado are currently pursuing bike share programs, according to Streetsblog.

Photo of Chattanooga man/city eating Atlanta’s lunch on a bike courtesy of Streetsblog