After two and a half years of planning and fundraising, the finish line is in sight for Hoboken’s bike share program. Thanks to sponsorships from six local companies, the city and its private partners have enough capital for an initial network of 250 next-generation smart bikes spread across 29 stations. At a press conference this past Wednesday, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer promised that the system will be online by the end of September.
Originally proposed as a three-town, 50-station system, the Hudson Bike Share will only have stations in Hoboken for the time being, though users can leave their bikes at normal bike racks in certain areas of Weehawken and Jersey City without incurring a fee.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop dropped out of the Hudson Bike Share partnership last year to join New York City’s Citi Bike system, and according to city spokesman Juan Melli, Weehawken did not raise the private funding necessary to have its own stations.
The 29 stations in the Hoboken system were placed so that every resident would be within a three- to five-minute walk.
“This is going to give Hoboken residents and visitors a very convenient way to get from anywhere in our city to everywhere that they want to go,” said Zimmer.
“We live in an urban area and many people just don’t have the space for a bike in their home, and so it just gives them another convenient and affordable transportation option,” she added.
The Hudson Bike Share will be operated by bike rental company Bike and Roll.
How it will work
What sets the Hoboken program apart from regional rivals like Citi Bike is its technology. Each German-engineered NextBike in the fleet has a GPS transmitter and a traditional cable lock, meaning it can be tracked individually via smartphone app and left outside while a user goes on shopping errands.
The traditional lock allows nearly all of Hudson Bike Share’s stations to be analog racks, which take up less space and cannot malfunction. If a station is already full, a user can even leave their NextBike locked to a normal bike rack nearby or to itself.
“Technically we could have no-fee zones everywhere, including Manhattan.”–Chris Wogas
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As of Wednesday, annual memberships can be purchased online at hudsonbikeshare.com for a pre-sale price of $75. Once the program begins next month, the price will go up to $95 per year. Daily and weekly memberships are $9.95 and $25 respectively.
The NextBike is already the basis for bike share systems in 14 countries, but Hoboken is only the fourth U.S. system to adopt the design after Pittsburgh, Pa., West Palm Beach, Fla., and Kent State University.
Hudson River rivals
Zimmer and company did not shy from the inevitable comparisons between the Citi Bike system expanding into Jersey City and their own bike share venture. The Hoboken system, they said, is much cheaper on a per bike basis, had cheaper annual memberships (Citi Bike’s is now $149), and is more convenient and flexible in general.
“I’m a huge Citi Bike customer,” said Tom Glendening, president of E3Think, Hoboken’s planning partner in the bike share. “I’ve reached my 200th trip in the last two months, and it’s great, but this is better.”
What Hudson Bike Share doesn’t offer is full access to New York City and Jersey City, where over 400 Citi Bike stations could be operating by the end of 2017. In fact, the current membership contract for Hudson Bike Share forbids users from taking their bikes into New York City at all.
The special no-fee zones in Jersey City and Weehawken are an initial attempt to address this deficit. In seven locations including Liberty State Park, the Grove Street PATH station, and Lincoln Harbor, Hudson Bike Share users can drop off and ostensibly pick up bikes from normal racks for no extra charge.
These zones could expand in the future depending on user demand. “Technically we could have no-fee zones everywhere, including Manhattan,” said Chris Wogas, the chief executive of Bike and Roll.
Though the differing technologies of Citi Bike and Hudson Bike Share would seem to preclude a full merger of the systems, Wogas said he was open to the idea of a joint membership that would allow users access to both.
“It’s the hope of any bike share system within the region that we could have some sort of reciprocity,” he said.
Zimmer expressed hopes that a future partnership with Jersey City was still possible, and she invited Jersey City to put Citi Bike stations in southern Hoboken after the renovation of Observer Highway was complete.
Covering the costs
Like Citi Bike, Hudson Bike Share was designed to be run without public money, instead relying on a combination of user fees, sponsorships, and ad revenue to cover its annual costs of around $500,000.
Of crucial importance were the six founding sponsors announced Wednesday: CarePoint Health, Suez North America, Bijou Properties, Zipcar, Investors Bank, and Keller Williams City Life Realty.
Wogas declined to specify what each sponsor had paid, but in a letter to local businesses sent in May, a founding sponsorship was billed as a two-year, $100,000 commitment.
In exchange, the sponsors will have their logos emblazoned on the side of the bikes and the bike share stations around town, among other perks.
Giving back
The first 100 residents of the Hoboken Housing Authority to sign up for the Hudson Bike Share will get a free annual membership, and all HHA and Section 8 residents in town can get discounted memberships for only $60 per year.
In addition, Bike and Roll will partner with the Hoboken Shelter to hire and train some of its patrons to work within the bike share program. Hoboken Shelter Executive Director Jaclyn Cherubini called the bike share partnership a “wonderful opportunity to get the homeless back on their feet, with jobs.”
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.