You might see World Cup visitors and locals alike riding around Overland Park on new electric bikes.
That’s because the city, through a partnership with BikeWalkKC, rolled out 60 new e-bikes this week around major transportation hubs in the city.
The e-bikes — which are pedal-assisted and throttle-free — arrive just as the World Cup is getting started, for visitors to use alongside people who live and work in Overland Park.
City officials celebrated the e-bikes’ arrival in Overland Park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday at one of the RideKC bike racks placed at the Overland Park Convention Center, which will act as a transportation and welcome hub during FIFA-related festivities.
“As we grow, we want to ensure our transportation options grow with us. These bikes provide a link to and from our community hubs, our parks, our commercial districts, making Overland Park more connected than ever before,” Mayor Curt Skoog said earlier this week.
How to ride the new e-bikes
- Users can access the bikes and pay for them through RideKC’s app.
- It costs $1 to unlock an e-bike and 25 cents per minute of usage.
- Bikes must be returned to dedicated bike racks or designated parking hubs anywhere in the metro; otherwise, fees will continue to be charged.
- All riders must be at least 18 years of age.
- Helmets are encouraged.
E-bikes are mostly around Metcalf Avenue
The e-bikes are placed in clusters of 10 or so at six designated racks throughout the city, primarily along Metcalf Avenue between downtown and the Convention Center, as well as at Roe Park.
“For now, we’re going to have them along large transportation corridors, especially in advance of World Cup,” said Lara Isch, sustainability manager for Overland Park. “We want people to be able to get from our Convention Center to all of the really cool amenities we have downtown, all of the shopping along Metcalf.”
However, Isch told the Post, in the future, the e-bikes could be moved to other locations around the city or additional hubs, and more e-bikes could be added if there is demand for them.
“We’re hoping it’s really successful, and we can expand into trailheads and some other areas of the city to get more options for residents,” she said.
Overland Park’s e-bikes fill a “missing piece”
Overland Park’s e-bikes join a fleet of other RideKC bikes spread out around the Kansas City metro.
Lenexa also has 30 bike-share bikes around the city at eight hubs, and the e-bikes are deployed in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, as well.
Some of these e-bikes have already been in Overland Park with a fleet at the Aspiria campus near Nall Avenue and 115th Street.
Eric Vaughan, director of bike share for BikeWalkKC, said “Overland Park is one of the real cornerstones of our metro community,” and its addition to the e-bike network helps fill a gap.
“Now it’s easier and more seamless to move through that community than ever before,” he said.
Skoog offered similar sentiments, saying the e-bikes are “completing a missing piece of the regional puzzle.”
Overland Park narrowly approved the pilot program
Late last year, the Overland Park City Council voted 6-5 to move forward with the e-bike agreement with the regional nonprofit BikeWalkKC and waive the city’s typical procurement process in order to do so.
Councilmembers who supported the pilot lauded its relatively low cost compared to other transportation investments the city makes each year and described it as an instance of the city delivering on a promised focus on alternative transportation options.
Councilmembers Amy Antrim, Josh Beck, Holly Grummert, Andrew Payne and Gregg Riess voted against the pilot for a myriad of reasons. One concern raised was the fact that the agreement was reached outside of the annual budgetary process the city usually follows.
Councilmember Amy Scrivner, who works for BikeWalkKC, abstained from discussing and voting on the agreement in December 2025.
Keep reading: Overland Park rolling out 60 e-bikes with new pilot
