Jul. 23—Following the shutdown of the BCycle program in June, Houston city officials are selling the bikes and docking stations in an auction, putting the final nail in the coffin of the long-running bike-sharing system.
Residents who are interested in the red Houston BCycle bikes can head to the city's online auction site to make bids until Wednesday at 9 p.m. The city's Asset Disposition department said that 10 pedal bikes were sent for bidding on Monday As of this writing, the bikes in this auction batch have bids of around $48-76 dollars. One electric bike was also on the list, with its current bid going for $455. Starting bids for the bikes began at $10, as first reported by the Houston Public Media.
The bikes, along with docking stations and base plates, will be sold off, with an estimated 400 bikes to go to the auction block in the next few months.
BCycle announced it was shuttering its more than 150 stations in one fell swoop last June after struggling to find funding from municipal, county, and state transportation agencies. The nonprofit operator Houston Bike Share said it had been operating a reduced network with assistance for the last two years. It received $500,000 in funding from Houston to keep the program running in October 2023 but failed to secure new sources of funding to cover the latter half of this year.
"The organization's costs are continuing to increase, while the infrastructure continues to deteriorate," Houston Bike Share said then.
The red-and-gray bike-sharing kiosks and bike stands have been a city staple for over a decade, popular with riders who use them to travel along Houston's bayou trails and around downtown. In February, Houston Bike Share announced a plan to offer discounted monthly memberships in a bid to increase revenue and ridership, but that wasn't enough to save it from its financial issues. The dissolution of BCycle makes Houston the largest city in North America without a similar bike-share program.
"Bike share systems across the United States have experienced similar challenges," said Jennifer Ostlind, Interim Director of Planning and Development Department, in a statement. "Houston's system has outlived many others, but we have learned that successful systems that serve more than just recreational purposes require corporate and public support to remain viable."
The Metropolitan Transit Authority had previously voted to launch a bike share program in partnership with a Canadian company called PBSC Urban Solutions, but that contract is "under review," according to a METRO spokesperson, per a report by Houston Public Media. That plan was set to bring in 150 bikes, solar-powered charging stations, and 200 docking points.
___
(c)2024 the Houston Chronicle
Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
