Bike share program wheels into Kelowna

KELOWNA – A trial run of a bike share program began this week with a soft launch, putting a fleet of green-powered bikes on Kelowna’s streets.

A series of 40 havens — drop off points for the bicycles — have been established to start, active transportation coordinator Matt Worona said, mainly in the downtown area.

Kelowna is just the third city, behind Kingston and Victoria, to install the new wave of dockless bike shares.

“This is a real pilot program, at no cost to the city,” Worona said.

He expects to have 200 bikes on the road by Wednesday, June 12, the initial run of what could be as many as 1,500 of the orange-and-white Dropbike bicycles, depending on demand through the summer season.

“We’re anticipating at least 1,000,” Worona added. “We don’t want to put out too many if they are not being ridden.”

Dropbike bikes are GPS-equipped with a remote locking device, powered by a solar panel in the bike basket. An old-school dynamo powers the lights.

What they aren’t? They’re not e-bikes and they’re not free. And helmets are still required.

They need your legs and a refundable $50 membership deposit plus the Dropbike app available for iOS or Android. After that, it’s $1 per hour.

The app shows riders the location of the havens, marked by tape on the roads and sidewalks, the number of bikes available at each one, plus usage details.

Worona’s version gives him access to a lot more information, including the real-time location of every bike in the system.

“You can see them moving around, where they are being dropped. It’s pretty cool,” he added.

Despite the obvious tourist appeal of the brightly coloured bikes, Worona said the primary audience is locals and they’re even looking at extending the season.

“Kelowna has mild winters. The main reason to do this is to shrink the city, it’s not about tourism,” he said. “It’s about making short trips more possible. In a small city, 60 per cent of trips are under five kilometres. That’s bike share’s sweet spot."

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