Ride On! Bike Share Returns

One hundred e‑bikes are now available to rent by the minute at 30 stations across the city — to help New Haveners like Osvaldo Fernandez make the active commute from a doctor’s appointment in Fair Haven to soccer practice at Wilbur Cross. 

Those battery-boosted electric bikes are available through the city’s newly revived bike share program, Ride New Haven.

Two dozen city officials and local cycling advocates gathered at the corner of Blatchley Avenue and Grand Avenue Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the official launch of the program.

Speakers after speaker — from parking authority chief Doug Hausladen to city climate czar Steve Winter to East Rock/Fair Haven Alder Caroline Smith to New Haven Climate Movement organizer Amelia Lee to Community Park Enhancement Network (CPEN) founder Doreen Abubakar — exhorted the health, climate, and transportation benefits of having short-term bike rentals back in New Haven. 

“It establishes healthy habits that get people moving and out of cars” and experiencing the environment and community to which they belong, Lee said. Winter praised the program as providing a much-needed ​“affordable, convenient, environmentally friendly transportation option” — now back in New Haven in an ​“electrified format.” (Winter also said that Mayor Justin Elicker was looking forward to participating in Tuesday’s presser, but could not attend after testing positive for Covid.)

“Please, give it a try,” parking authority board chair Norm Forrester encouraged everyone listening and potentially interested in riding a Ride New Haven bike.

This version of city bike share is overseen by New Haven’s parking authority in conjunction with the San Francisco-based bike share provider Drop Mobility and a local bike mechanics company co-run by the owners of Devil’s Gear bike shop. 

It comes more than four years after a previous local bike share effort, dubbed Bike New Haven, closed up shop after two years of operation.

Interested bikers must first download and sign up through the Ride New Haven app on their smartphones before being able to unlock a bike at one of 30 stations across the city.

The payment options include: 

• Pay as you go, at $0.25 per minute, with a $1 unlock fee;

• $20 monthly payments, with no unlock fee and 60 minutes of free ride time per day (which can be across multiple trips), and $0.15 per minute after that;

• $99 annual payments, with no unlock fee, 60 minutes of free ride time per day, and $0.15 per minute after that; 

• An​“equity membership” model that costs $4 per month with 60 minutes of free ride time per day, and $0.10 per minute after that, for riders who receive SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) or who are residents or housing voucher recipients of the city’s housing authority.

Hernandez, 15, wasn’t part of the speaking lineup at Tuesday’s presser. Instead, the Fair Haven teenager was looking to head to afternoon soccer practice at Wilbur Cross High School after being home for part of the day for a doctor’s appointment. 

Seeing the lineup of newly available white, blue, and green e‑bikes at the Grand and Blatchley bike share station, as well as the commotion of city officials and active transportation advocates getting ready for the press conference, he asked if the bikes were available to rent — and then downloaded the app, signed in, and after a few minutes of figuring out how to pay, unlocked a bike and headed up Blatchley Avenue.

Hausladen said that the program has launched with 100 e‑bikes, and will soon have 100 more pedal-assisted bikes that were part of New Haven’s previous bike share program.

Why does he think this effort will work when the last one failed?

“Number one: Electricity is a different product,” Hausladen said, noting that this program has e‑bikes, which have proven immensely popular in other bike share systems across the country. 

Second, he said, this program should have a more ​“complete network” of stations, and available rental bicycles, than the previous one. While Ride New Haven is starting with the same 30 stations as the previous program (minus the one that was outside of Fair Haven Community Health Care’s current construction site at Grand Avenue and James Street), it intends to add more and expand.

Third, he said, ​“cost and price.” The parking authority has been able to subsidize this latest iteration of bike share to such an extent that there are low-cost versions available to low-income riders. The parking authority’s contract with Drop Mobility is also a minimum five-year agreement.

The previous bike share program included (controversial) advertisement panels stationed next to almost every set of bike racks. Will this new program, which is funded primarily by the parking authority and user fees and subscriptions, use the existing ad panels in any way?

No, Hausladen said about the remaining ad panels. ​“We are not associated with those things.”