The Pony Express Bike Share program has experienced both good times and flat tires in its first few months.
The program launched in August as a free program allowing people to borrow bikes from a rack and take short trips within St. Joseph.
Health Educator with the City of St. Joseph Health Department Nancy Taylor said they’ve heard positive feedback from people enjoying the bikes, but the biggest issues so far with the program have been maintenance related.
“We’re running across some issues with flat tires and some other maintenance problems, loose handlebars and pedals, things of that nature,” Taylor said. “So we’ve pulled the fleet, we have over 30 bikes back in the shop and we’re doing some extended maintenance based on some suggestions from the folks with Green Apple Bikes that we are modeling our bike share program after, there in Manhattan, Kansas.”
Taylor said they plan to put out a reduced number of bikes as the “winter fleet” in the next couple of weeks. In the spring, they plan to add more bikes with better quality tires and Taylor said they’re learning as they go with the program.
Taylor said the program got started with a Healthy Eating Active Living grant through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. From there, local businesses sponsored or adopted bike racks. Taylor said expanding the bike program to more locations in St. Joseph depends on sponsorships.
“A business or organization would adopt a bike rack and the bikes that go with it,” Taylor said. “So every year your sponsorship would pay for the repairs to replace parts or whatever for those six bikes and then it would buy six more bikes that next coming year and then to help some of the other operational costs that may be incurred with running the program.”
Taylor said, in reference to some initial reactions to the program, so far, stolen bikes do not seem to be a big issue.
“Our theft prevention is really the citizens in our community, they’ve done a great job of calling, texting the phone number, sometimes the police, when they see a bike abandoned or… needs to be repaired,” Taylor said. “We feel pretty good about the program. I’m not really concerned that just because the bike racks are empty, doesn’t mean that they’re stolen. I think it’s just they’re being used.”
Taylor said community members have also used the phone number on the bike to voice their appreciation.
“They’re just really thankful that we’re able to offer this to our community so that’s been really good to hear the feedback from that. People have posted pictures on our Facebook page (saying) they haven’t been on a bike in a long time or they just think it’s really cool, so we’ve gotten lots of good feedback,” Taylor said. “(Also) we’ve identified, through this program, that there is a large need for people that are needing bikes as a regular means of transportation to get around town.”
For more information on the bike program, click here.