Bike-Sharing Program Coming to St. Pete?

A bike-sharing program could soon be on its way to St. Petersburg after approval from city council Thursday to attempt to piggyback off Tampa's bike-sharing contract. 

Sitting as the public services and infrastructure committee, council passed the motion to move forward with the program unanimously. Once staff has contract in place, it will then go before the entire council for final approval. 

"I think it is a great (plan) and we should move forward," said council member Steve Kornell. "Piggy-backing makes a lot of sense."

City staff presented a plan Thursday that could be run at no cost to the city or taxpayers, promotes bicycle transportation and would utilize existing infrastructure. The private businesses the run the program would pay to install and maintain the bicycles and kiosks. 

"There are over 42 cities in the U.S. that have a bike (sharing) program," said Joe Kubicki, director of Transportation and Parking Management.

According to city documents, the bikes would be equipped with a GPS system, "other methods for advanced tracking and proprietary locking mechanisms (and) software for monitoring usage."

Kubicki said St. Pete's plan would be implemented in three phases. 

• Phase I would include downtown, the waterfront, Grand Central Business District, Grand Central transit terminal and Dell Holmes Park. 
• Phase II would include the Pinellas Trail, Skyway Trail, South Bay bike route, Clam Bayou, Boyd Hill and Maximo Pak. 
• Phase III would go north for the North Bay Trail and Island Loop Trail. 

In the fall Tampa is expected to launch its bike-sharing program with 300 bikes and 30 bike stations. According to city documents, the Tampa program will be financially self-sustaining, be implemented in three phases and include helmet hubs.

Phase I for Tampa will be launched in the downtown core, Ybor City and Bayshore. It is expected to start in November. Tampa's plan would eventually expand to the rest of downtown, Westshore and USF. 

Tampa is launching its program with 32 miles of trails. St. Petersburg has 112 miles of trails, according to city staff.

Accessibility to helmets was the main concern council members had Thursday for staff. 

Council member Jim Kennedy asked if the city would be liable if the city did not provide a helmet and a bicyclist got hurt while riding a bike form city's program. 

Chief Assistant City Attorney Mark Winn said the city could be unless helmet stations were provided, which is currently in the plan. 

"We certainly need to make sure that they are available," Winn said. 

Council member Leslie Curran said she supported the plan 100 percent but said the helmets have to be a part of the final plan going forward. 

"To the helmet idea, which obviously I support, I will guarantee I wouldn’t be here today if I wasn’t wearing a helmet," Curran said. 

Curran suffered severe injuries in a bicycle crash in August 2010. According to a report by the Tampa Bay Times, she "suffered a severe concussion and was placed in an induced coma for several days. She breathed with the help of a ventilator for about a week."

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