Fort Worth Bike Sharing
As the world started to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people began to return to the great outdoors. Daily walks and online meetings out in the backyard started to become the norm. As the pandemic continues to stretch on, Fort Worth Bike Sharing has a way to help people continue outdoor activities while checking off their daily to-do lists.
The local bike-sharing company announced that it bought 28 new bike stations that will be put up across the city, with stations being added at places like Bluebonnet Circle and Capps Park.
The plan is to have all stations open by the end of 2021, and Fort Worth Bike Sharing hopes to see the first installations completed in time for TCU students to take full advantage of them over the school’s three-day Spring Refresh in mid-March.
With 46 stations opened since April 2013, Fort Worth Bike Sharing has seen significant growth over the last eight years. Between 2017 and 2018, Dallas struggled with issues of abandoned bikes being littered across the city; luckily, the launch of e-bikes in the Fort Worth area has been drastically different.
“The people loved those,” Fort Worth Bike Sharing director Jennifer Grissom says. “A lot of people, I think, enjoy the fact that, ‘I'm going to ride a bike, but I'm also going to get to go have coffee, or I can actually run an errand on it.’ I feel like we were embraced with open arms, for sure.”
Unlike the dockless bikes that were discarded across Dallas after their introduction to the city in 2017, Fort Worth Bike Sharing runs a dock system. Each bike must be rented from a dock station and returned to one at the end of the ride. If a bike is not returned, the rider may face a financial penalty. Bikes are routinely looked after by a maintenance team of trained technicians. This allows for a reliable system, according to Grissom.
The new bike stations will be added largely to the east and north of the current stations. Grissom hopes people will be able to use the bikes not just for fun but also in their day-to-day lives.
“People can use the bikes for fun and recreation and a healthy option to have some entertainment, but also, do they need to get to work? Sometimes people would like to have that option, even if they don't need it," Grissom says. "We want to be able to provide that for them.”
More information is available at fortworthbikesharing.com.
