Tampa, Florida -- This fall residents and visitors in the City of Tampa will be able to get around the city via a new affordable, easy mode of transportation.
Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced Wednesday that the City of Tampa will partnering with CycleHop, LLC and Social Bicycles to create a bicycle sharing program.
The program is part of Mayor Buckhorn's overall goal to make Tampa a more bicycle-friendly community and to expand on the city's bicycle infrastructure, which currently includes 32.5 center lane miles of trails, bicycle lanes and signed bicycle routes.
"The idea for bicycle sharing is simple: to give residents and visitors one more way to get around our urban core. For the cruise passengers in Channelside, the downtown office workers, and the family in Seminole Heights, this program will be designed to make all of their lives easier and provide an affordable, easy mode of transportation," said Mayor Bob Buckhorn.
The City of Tampa released a request for proposals (RFP) to create a bicycle sharing program in October 2012. The RFP requested a proposal to create 30 stations with 300 bikes throughout Tampa's downtown core, Ybor City, and surrounding neighborhoods by fall 2013, with expansion phases to continue out to Westshore and the University of South Florida area by fall 2015.
The City received responses from three companies and chose CycleHop.
"Social Bicycles is excited to work with CycleHop to bring the next generation of bike share technology to the City of Tampa. Residents and visitors will soon be able to travel using a new environmentally-friendly form of public transportation," said Ryan Rzepecki, CEO, Social Bicycles, in a release. "Our bikes are equipped with a GPS-enabled locking system which will lock to bike racks found at hub locations throughout downtown Tampa. Our system is more affordable and scale-able than other technologies, and we hope to quickly spread throughout the Tampa Bay region."
The first bikes are expected to be in place by fall 2013.
City of Tampa