By Will Reisman, @WillReisman Since launching in late August, the Bay Area’s bike share program has been hailed as a success by the regional officials overseeing the network. Now, local residents can review online trip data to understand why the people running the program are so enthusiastic about this innovative new approach to the last mile. Alta Bicycle Share, the private vendor running the bike share program, has collected ridership data, which is now posted HERE on the program’s website. Viewers can see graphical information on daily and monthly trips, the number of annual memberships purchased and how many casual bicyclists are using the system. The data is broken down for each of the five cities, while also collected to represent the system as a whole. Buoyed by steady daily progress, the system has registered over 100,000 total trips through the end of November. The five participating areas—San Francisco, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose—are all seeing strong numbers as the program gears up to expand to cover more areas this year.
Right now, the Bay Area Bike Share has 700 bikes available throughout the five areas involved in the network, although after expansion, there will be 1,000. The bikes are set up at stations, where participants can pick up and drop the two-wheelers off at various points throughout the Peninsula. The bike share network is a joint project run by Alta and overseen by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The Air District is partnering with various local agencies, like the San Mateo County Transit District, to manage the program. Bay Area residents and visitors can learn more about the bike share system at www.bayareabikeshare.com.