IN: Gary bikeshare program to return in March, expand offerings

The Gary Public Transportation Corporation's bike share program will soon return, GPTC planning, marketing and grants manager David Wright told The Times, and city residents can expect more bikes and hubs this year.

The GPTC's Cycle219 program, which launched for the first time in the spring of 2024, has been inactive for the winter since November, but will restart in March. Last year's limited rollout made bicycles available for rent through a mobile app at four hubs, two located in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood and two more in its downtown. Users have the option to pay $1.50 per 30 minutes of use, or buy an unlimited annual pass for $25.

Similar bikeshare programs have been implemented in cities across the country. Valparaiso has had its program, Valpo Velocity, since 2017. That same year, Miller Spotlight, a community development group supported by the Legacy Foundation, launched a small-scale bikeshare program in Miller Beach using the same corporate partner.

The GPTC contracted the Indianapolis-based consulting firm Health by Design to develop a plan for what would become Cycle219. A survey conducted in November 2022 and cited in a report produced the following February found that 48% of survey respondents said they would use a bikeshare program if it were available in Gary.

The project was funded through a $50,000 from the Knight Foundation and additional grant money that the GPTC received from from AARP.

In anticipation of the program's rollout, the GPTC acquired a total of 22 bikes for the program— 20 traditional bikes and 2 e-bikes— from the New York-based Priority Bicycles. Only around half of those were actually deployed in 2024, Wright said.

"We also were pretty deliberate to make the rollout small so that not to inundate ourselves with any issues," he told The Times.

There were indeed issues. Many users did not put the bikes back in the hubs' electronic locks after using them, instead leaving them by roadsides or bringing them onto private property. Wright said that two of the program's bikes were lost and remain missing.

To ensure the availability of bikes at the hubs and to mitigate the risk of further losses, the GPTC plans to implement a "digital fence" to incentivize better user behavior. The bikes will issue an alert to users who stray too far from a hub and those who don't return their bikes will face additional fees, Wright said.

Wright said that the GPTC has finalized plans to add two new rental bike hubs, one at University Park near Indiana University Northwest and another at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, when the program returns. Exactly how many bikes will be available at each hub, Wright said, is still being worked out. The GPTC has an open purchase order for additional units and is prepared to expand its inventory if it proves necessary.

Other sites for additional rental bike hubs are under consideration, including Hammond's new Gateway Station, which opened in October.

"We want to get a bit closer to the South Shore (Line) station and the National Park," Wright said. "We've had conversations with both organizations about how to facilitate that."

If all goes to plan, he said, additional bike hubs could be operational before the end of the year.

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