The New Bike Share Program Will Change How We Get Around Town for the Better

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Our 220-year-old Newburyport home does not have a garage, nor a shed large enough to hold more than a push lawnmower. Consequently, my family stores bikes in our fireplaces. During our sons’ childhood, we had as many as eight bikes stacked between the living and dining rooms. Now adults, the sons took their bikes with them and the living room is cycle-free. But the dining room remains home to a small fleet.

Some visitors are amused. Others are horrified. Most people with any sense of interior design should be horrified. They’d rather have logs in their fireplaces, their view of “Ted Lasso” unimpeded by handlebars. Without ample storage, those folks may opt not to own a bike. And if those people live in Newburyport, I have good news:

Later this month, Newburyport will launch a bike share program. You will no longer need to own a bike to roll to Joppa Flats to catch the sunset or zip to Abe’s for a bagel. Thanks to the Herculean efforts by Newburyport Livable Streets, six stations will dot the Clipper City Rail Trail at points easily accessible to neighborhoods, including Washington Street, March’s Hill, Market Landing Park, the American Yacht Club, and the Parker Street entrance. Newburyporters can easily hop on one of the 30 bikes for roughly $3 per 30 minutes, ride the trail for fun, or head to the train station for the daily commute. They can ride downtown for a latte or dinner without worrying about parking, or the traffic jams clogging Merrimac Street. Kids can rent a bike to hang with friends rather than ask a parent for a ride. Even for those of us with our own two wheels, the option to run an errand on a bike without lugging a cumbersome lock, or worrying about theft, is delicious.

And let’s not forget the visitors. Arriving by train, they can jump on a bike at Parker Street, explore the whole rail trail, grab a chicken Caesar wrap at Port City Sandwiches, shop, drink, enjoy all that our city has to offer without adding to traffic congestion. Bikes don’t pollute. The fewer cars, the cleaner the air. Not everyone drives electric.

Even if visitors drive into downtown and park in the garage, or in a lot, they don’t have to move their car to explore the waterfront, Oak Hill Cemetery, the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, or Plum Island.

The 3-year pilot program is funded by a combination of federal and regional grants and generous donations from local organizations such as the Coastal Trails Coalition, the Institution for Savings Charitable Foundation, the Mary Alice Arakelian Foundation, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Two 3-wheeled adaptive bikes may be added to the fleet if the City Council approves the purchase, which would be funded through the Commission on Disabilities’ revolving fund. It is hard to argue against inclusion – the two bikes would make the trails accessible to disabled kids and adults – but the $9,000 price tag and the debate on whether the Commission’s fund qualifies as public  – the City Council voted earlier in the year not to support the bike share program with taxpayer’s money – has shot the proposal to committee.

In defense of opting not to use public funds for the program, the City Council described the bike share initiative as nice to have but not necessary. Perhaps. But aren’t most innovations deemed non-essential at first? Horses provided transport; why do we need autos? Why cell phones when we have landlines? Yet experiments also often become part of our cultural fabric. They become essential. Why not encourage cycling in any form? If you’ve walked through the center of the city early on Friday mornings, you may have seen the latest effort to encourage cycling: the city’s bike bus. Volunteers and parents meet every Friday morning at 7:30 at Perkins Playground and then proceed to Bresnahan Elementary School through side streets, gathering kids on bikes as they go. I rode on the inaugural trip and delighted in the dozens of elementary school kids – and many parents – rolling happily to the start of their day, chattering all the way.

Who is to say that a bike share program won’t become essential to many residents and to the city’s tourism? Perhaps those who had long ago put away their two-wheels will embrace the ease of travel a bike provides. Maybe the Merrimac Street weekend congestion will fade.

If the program is successful, it could expand. Plum Island and Storey Avenue are possible next rental sites. Salisbury and Amesbury may host stations also. If cyclists and motorists are ever to find peace in their quest for pavement, increasing the number of bicycles on the road will only help. Studies have proven that the more cyclists, the more aware, the more accepting are drivers.

And a bike share means that you don’t have to store your wheels in your fireplace.

Sue Hertz
Newburyport resident

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