After two unsuccessful attempts to offer electronic scooters and bikes in the city, Overland Park could launch a new e-bike share program that officials hope will have more permanence.
The prospective partnership with regional nonprofit BikeWalk KC, if approved, would be wheeled out ahead of the World Cup next summer. It would be part of RideKC’s metrowide transportation network.
Unlike past pilot programs with private companies Bird and Lime that included both e-scooters and e-bikes, this new effort would only bring e-bikes to Overland Park streets.
The bike share program would have upfront and annual operating costs associated with it, whereas those past programs were effectively free to the city. However, the city will have more opportunity to recoup those costs by taking a larger share of user fees generated by RideKC bike riders.
Last Wednesday, the Overland Park City Council Community Development Committee took the first look at the proposed agreement, unanimously recommending its approval.
“I think this can be better than the prior programs that we’ve done,” Councilmember Chris Newlin said.
Overland Park could get 60 e-bikes to start
Overland Park would have 60 RideKC e-bikes to start out — an average of 10 bikes at each of the six racks the city would deploy as part of the program. These would be pedal-assisted, throttle-free electronic bikes.
Users would have to be at least 18 years old and would be able to access the bikes and pay for them through RideKC’s app.
The RideKC e-bikes would need to be returned to dedicated bike racks or designated parking hubs anywhere in the metro, otherwise the user will continue to be charged for their ride. That lessens the chance e-bikes would be left strewn about on public sidewalks or in the wrong places, a common complaint about e-bikes and scooters deployed as part of past pilot programs.
City officials are looking at multiple locations throughout Overland Park for setting up the RideKC bikes, primarily along Metcalf Avenue, between downtown Overland Park and the Overland Park Convention Center on College Boulevard. Bikes could also be deployed at Roe Park, near Roe and I-435.
Additional locations could be added if private entities or larger shopping centers opted to sponsor their own fleet of e-bikes and racks.
Each bike would come with an average annual maintenance cost of nearly $1,700 a year, though BikeWalk KC would handle the care, winter storage and other management tasks related to the bikes.
The maximum annual operation cost of the bike share would be $120,000, according to city documents, though the city could apply capital raised through user fees to offset some of that.
There would also be an estimated up front cost of no more than $350,000, which could be paid for with city contingency funds. That amount will cover the initial purchase of the bikes, the installation of bike racks and other startup costs.
Lara Isch, Overland Park’s sustainability manager, said that by purchasing the e-bikes, the city could prevent another sudden departure like with what happened with scooter companies Bird and Lime, when each decided to bail on their respective pilot programs before they finished.
The city would be responsible for retiring and paying for replacement bikes. The bikes are predicted to last about five years.
Overland Park could be key to regional e-bike share program
Lenexa and Johnson County Parks and Recreation, as well as the mixed-use Aspiria campus at 119th Street and Nall Avenue in central Overland Park, have all explored the same bike share program with RideKC. The shareable e-bikes are already deployed in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas.
Isch said some smaller Johnson County cities, like Roeland Park, Mission and Prairie Village, might be interested in rolling out their own programs. She suggested that Overland Park taking this step could make it easier for those communities to jump on board, helping to build out a wider e-bike program for Johnson County and the metro region.
Councilmember Logan Heley, who chairs the Community Development Committee, said he sees Overland Park joining the RideKC bike share as “establishing a spine,” which could encourage additional buy-in.
“We’re a big fish here,” he said, adding that it would “make a lot of sense” for other cities to join after Overland Park does.
Heley also predicted that private entities would be eager to sponsor e-bikes and parking hubs now that Overland Park is poised to join the bike share program.
Eric Vaughan, director of bike share for BikeWalk KC, said commercial developers and other similar businesses are common private sponsors in the metro.
Next steps:
- The proposed agreement with BikeWalk KC goes to the Overland Park City Council Public Works Committee for a recommendation next. That committee meets on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.
- Later, the agreement will go to the full city council for consideration.
- It may go back to a committee after that to answer some lingering legal questions as well.
Keep reading: Lime ends Overland Park e-scooter pilot early, following Bird’s similarly abrupt exit
