Nashville residents, visitors taking advantage of bike sharing programs
[Originally posted by WSMV]
Reported by Jennifer Johnson
Apr 12, 2013 5:54 p.m.
If you’ve noticed a lot of green and red bikes around town lately, it’s not your imagination.
Nashville now has two different bike sharing services that you can take advantage of, but there’s one huge difference: one’s free and the other isn’t.
In 2011, Metro bought 26 bikes that the community could use to explore the city. Not long after, Regions Bank donated 100 more bikes to the program.
“I thought ‘How wonderful to have people who don’t have a bike come get one and ride along,’ so I wanted to find out a little more about them,” said Julie Russell.
Late last year, the B-Cycle program kicked off, nearly doubling the number of bikes now available to locals and tourists.
What’s the difference between the green bikes and the red ones? The green ones are free, but they have to be checked out at one of 10 Metro locations, which can be found online. The red bikes are rented from a kiosk.
The bikes from B-Cycle are available for a daily pass of $5, a weekly pass for $10, a monthly pass for $15 or an annual pass for $50.
You have to have a credit card to rent any B-Cycle, and if you don’t check them back in every hour, you’ll be charged.
It’s a system that’s left some riders confused.
“I never could figure out how I was supposed to do it,” said one renter. “Now after reading it really, really carefully, it does make sense.”
Others have already purchased a season pass.
“Some people haven’t rode bikes since they were kids,” said Natasha Teasley. “To have the opportunity to do more than just jogging in the park or a brisk walk in the park, it gives you a chance to get your heart rate up and look at different venues around the city.”
So far about 4,000 people have bought a membership to ride a B-Cycle, something that’s required in order to ride.
You can buy a pass for a day, a week, a month or a year, but the bikes still have to be turned in every hour to avoid extra fees.
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