PITTSBURGH, PA (December 13, 2021) Mayor William Peduto, the Department of Mobility & Infrastructure (DOMI), and Health Ride today announced the Pittsburgh Bike Share Electrification and Mobility Hubs Project. This project prioritizes the addition of new electrified bikes to the existing fleet of traditional Healthy Ride pedal bikes in Pittsburgh. It also includes racks fitted with docking hardware for scooters and other motorized mobility devices. Mobility hubs will be deployed throughout the city at current Healthy Ride bikeshare stations that will better connect Pittsburgh to electrified micromobility. The United States Department of Transportation's Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) has awarded $900,000 for the project. The City will be supporting the grant with an additional $225,000.
"Creating greater access to equitable mobility options has been a cornerstone of my Administration," said Mayor William Peduto. "Ensuring our residents have access to quality transportation creates greater opportunity for all citywide. I want to thank the Department of Mobility & Infrastructure and Health Ride for collaborating on this next great step."
Healthy Ride will launch an entirely new bikeshare system in 2022 that features e-assist bicycles in addition to traditional pedal bikes. On-street charging stations create a network of infrastructure to support reliable, convenient e-assist bicycles throughout the Healthy Ride network. On December 15, Healthy Ride will begin uninstalling 50 Healthy Ride stations throughout the city in preparation for the electrification installation in 2022.
"In 2021, Healthy Ride began plans to rebuild the bikeshare system holding Equity as the core value,” said David White, Executive Director, Bike Share Pittsburgh. “We established a Community Coalition of partners, customers, and stakeholders to help guide the process of building a better bikeshare program for Pittsburgh. Electrification and e-assist bicycles are essential to this shift.”
Electric assist bikes have proven to be wildly popular with new customers to bikeshare. Cities like Madison WI, Charlotte NC and Chicago IL, have seen electric assist bicycles meaningfully increase bikeshare usage by more diverse riders. For more information on Healthy Ride, visit the system’s website www.healthyridepgh.com.
About Pittsburgh Bike Share:
The mission of Pittsburgh Bike Share is to provide Pittsburgh with a joyful, sustainable, and affordable mobility service for all residents and visitors.
Pittsburgh Bike Share is a charitable organization founded in December 2012 and incubated by Bike Pittsburgh. The organization was created due to mounting interest in implementing a municipal bike share system in Pittsburgh from a collection of local leaders: planners at the City of Pittsburgh, business leaders at Walnut Capital, and bicycle/pedestrian advocates at Bike Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Bike Share owns and operates Pittsburgh’s public bike sharing system named Healthy Ride. Healthy Ride is designed to provide an active transportation option for residents, students and visitors of Pittsburgh.
For media inquiries:
City of Pittsburgh
James Hill
james.hill@pittsburghpa.gov
Healthy Ride
Erin Potts
erin@pghbikeshare.org
