In April, signs started popping up in locations on the streets (literally) around Birmingham, AL. Birmingham Bikeshare is testing out potential locations around the city to see where the public would find the bike service the most convenient. Passersby can anonymously text their approval or opinion of the location to the Bikeshare team using TalkToTheManager. It's an efficient way for Bikeshare to gather feedback and record that feedback for review, and super-convenient for the public to give their input, without sharing their phone number.
We're excited to see how the folks in Birmingham are participating in this effort, and we look forward to bringing this innovation in public outreach to other cities.
The bikes that Bikeshare will be offering aren't just regular bikes, either. Birmingham Bikeshare will be adding electric-assist bikes, sometimes called e-bikes, into the mix.
The plan will be the first in the country to include electric assist bikes among the bikeshare's inventory. Birmingham's program will make it the first city in the Western Hemisphere to use "electric-assist" bikes, or those that use electricity to help with pedaling in hilly terrain.
The local bike sharing network will include 400 bikes and 40 kiosks placed throughout central Birmingham.
Among those, there will be 100 electric-pedal bikes. Those bikes were included to lessen barriers to using the system for people not as experienced with hillier areas of the city said Lindsey West, deputy operations director for the planning commission.
REV Birmingham, the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, the city of Birmingham, and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham are partnering on the bikeshare program. Bewegen Technologies, Inc., from Quebec, Canada, is the vendor for the bikes and station kiosks. Once launched for public use, REV Birmingham will administer the program.
We're glad to help!