Last Tuesday, Metro Louisville’s Bike Louisville held a public meeting to unveil details of the city’s planned 300-bike-strong bike share system that could roll out as soon as next year. (We already covered the program highlights over here.) “The meeting went well with around 20 people showing up on Tuesday night to learn about Bike Share and help Louisville prioritize suggested station locations and suggest new station locations,” Rolf Eisinger, bike and pedestrian coordinator at Bike Louisville, told Broken Sidewalk in an email.
For those who couldn’t make the meeting, there’s still time to suggest stations for the bike share system. A “Suggest-a-Station” website by bike share operator CycleHop has been launched “to help Louisville prioritize and suggest additional station locations.”
The map allows Louisvillians to suggest and comment on proposed bike share station locations throughout Downtown, Nulu, Butchertown, SoBro, Old Louisville, Smoketown, the University of Louisville’s Belknap Campus, and the Medical District.
According to Eisinger, Bike Louisville will be gathering community feedback in advance of seeking design approval from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. As the system is installed, stations could be phased in according to this input. “Meanwhile, we will be looking for sponsorships that will help fund the ongoing operation of the system,” Eisinger said. “This transportation program has leveraged over $1 million in federal funds to purchase the bikes and the stations.” The system would be operated and maintained by CycleHop and a local non-profit.
This station-input phase is important to help make Louisville’s bike share system really useful. Think about where you might start and where you’d like to go using such a system and add your station ideas to the map.
