Empty Blue Bike stations dot Columbia. Will the public bicycle-sharing program return?
It’s been more than a year since Columbia’s Blue Bike bike-share program folded after its operator, Bewegen Technologies, pulled out of the city amid speculation that the company had filed for bankruptcy.
For the past year, more than 100 bikes that would otherwise be rentable to use around Columbia have sat in storage as the city looks for a new company to take over the public bike share program.
As the company pulled out of cities across the country, several local news articles reported that Bewegen had filed for bankruptcy in Canada, but the company refuted that claim in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Several articles have been written on the bankruptcy of Bewegen Technologies. This is fake news, Bewegen has not filled (sic) for bankruptcy. We continue to work with our clients,” the social media post written April 19, 2023 read. Bewegen Technologies is listed as being permanently closed on its Google business page, and the company does not appear to have an active website.
Regardless, the company did end its relationship with Columbia and several other cities across the U.S., including Raleigh, North Carolina.
Krista Hampton, Columbia’s director of Planning and Development services, said the city did not receive much warning about Bewegen’s departure from the city, nor were they informed by BeWegen of the company’s financial problems prior to the company suddenly ending the Blue Bike program in the city.
Now, a year later, the city is hoping to revive the bike share program, but it first must find another company to operate the vast and expensive array of bikes, bike stations and software that allows people to pay for and use the bikes.
Columbia issued a request for proposals in February and is in the process of selecting a new operator. It received four proposals during that process but no contract has been awarded.
Hampton could not say when the program might be up and running again. The February request for proposals indicated spring 2024 as a target, but Hampton said the timeline also depends on approval from its primary sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield.
The city won’t be paying for the bike system beyond staff time to handle day-to-day operations, Hampton added, thanks to Blue Cross Blue Shield’s sponsorship and additional sponsorship from the COMET bus system.
It’s also not immediately clear how much it will cost to use the bikes once the system is active again. Bewegen charged riders $2 per ride or $6 for a 2-hour pass. Users could also purchase monthly passes for $20, and the company also offered a special annual plan for students.
The new bike program will use the existing bike stations, but Hampton said the city is also hoping to adopt a handful of improvements, like adding more electric bikes with the goal of becoming fully electric in the future, and relocating stations that haven’t gotten much use in the past to busier areas.
There also are plans to add bike share stations at Bull Street and Finlay Park, both destinations that are seeing significant public investment. Finlay Park is currently closed for a $24 million renovation, but is expected to reopen by fall 2025.
A bike-friendly city?
Columbia is not the most hospitable environment for cyclists, but there have been slow and steady improvements in recent years, said Scott Nuelken, who runs Cola Town Bike Collective, a nonprofit bike shop that advocates for more robust bike infrastructure in the city.
Nuelken said he supports any effort to make Columbia more bike friendly, but he worries about issues that plagued the previous bike share program. The operation offered both pedal-power bikes and electric bicycles.
“It’s more than just getting corporate sponsors,” he said. Even when the bike program was operating in the past, it was “haunted” by mechanical failures, Nuelken said. A bike might work for a mile and then completely shut down, for example.
Hampton said the city did begin receiving some complaints about bikes not working toward the end of BeWegen’s tenure operating the system, which she said the city believes was likely because of the company’s financial problems.
Nuelken has concerns beyond maintenance. When the program launched in 2018, he was supportive but felt the city should invest in safer bike lanes and greenways before launching a bike-share program.
One of the city’s goals when it launched the program was to promote more bike usage, which could then lead to more bike lanes.
“Having people more visible on bikes is always helpful in trying to transform a city,” Nuelken agreed.
Nuelken is skeptical that the bikes will get much use without the safer infrastructure, but he could see the program taking off once the myriad greenways being built between Richland and Lexington counties are finished, like the plan to connect a greenway from Lake Murray Dam to the Columbia Canal.
City data already bears that prediction out. Of the 18 bike stations that were active in the city between 2019 and the end of 2022, the station at Columbia’s Riverfront Park accounted for 36% of all trip departures with more than 14,000 rides from that station in four years. The second most-used station was at Benedict College, with just over 3,600 rides during those four years, according to a study by the Central Midlands Council of Governments.
Hampton could not say when the bikes will again be rentable, but the city is planning a two-phase roll out, first to reestablish the stations that are sitting empty across downtown, and later to expand stations into West Columbia.
This story was originally published July 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
