The recent debate over parking spaces around the West Side Market is one reason why some area business owners shelled out their own money to get a bicycle sharing program in Ohio City. One is Graham Veysey of North Water Partners ..
“The space that two wheels and a bike takes up vs spaces that are needed for automobiles to park. You actually relieve congestion when you have bike share programs like this so it’s actually a positive for everybody.”
The Cleveland Metroparks joined a half-dozen businesses to purchase bike racks from the company Zagster. Its CEO, Tim Ericson, says instead of using a credit card machine, customers rent the bikes for $3 a day by texting his company to unlock a bike.
“Everybody is walking around with a mobile phone, whether it’s a smart phone or a dumb phone and we’re able to get access to the bike using that. Even if you don’t have a smart phone you use text messaging and this helps keep the cost down to make bike sharing viable for cities where it normally would not be.”
One supporter, City Councilman Joe Cimperman, said the next step should be the city building bicycle infrastructure like dedicated bike lanes.