Bike Share is Back in New Haven, Connecticut

After a four year hiatus, bike share returns to New Haven with the launch of 100 electric bicycles.

On September 3, the launch of Ride New Haven marked the official relaunch of a bike share program in the coastal Connecticut town. New Haven’s first bike share effort ran from 2018 to 2020, leaving the city without this vital transportation option for the last four years.

“What the program means in the revamped system for New Haven is a lot more interesting,” says Douglas Hausladen, executive director of the New Haven Parking Authority and board chair of the New Haven Coalition for Active Transportation (NCAT). “We’ll have our old pedal bicycles and we’ll also have, to start with, 10 electric-powered cargo bikes as well.”

In conjunction with the reintroduction of 100 of the program’s old pedal bicycles within the first year of the program, Ride New Haven also reactivated old station sites without the advertisement panels which were unpopular during its first bike share effort. The first iteration of bike share in New Haven had no public subsidy, which led to the program having to use the advertisement panels to help cover costs. Now, the city’s parking authority is subsidizing the contract.

“We’re subsidizing a 24-hour, electric-powered mobility transit system in order to better connect people to train stations and buses,” says Hausladen. “ We want to solve that first-mile, last-mile problem and expand this citywide as fast as we can.”

Pass options include $20/month or $120/year for 30 minutes of free rides per day with no unlock fees. You can pay-as-you-go for $0.25/minute and $1 to unlock. The yearly pass has a special promotion through the end of September, including a $99 annual membership that provides one hour of free ride time per day.

Ride New Haven also offers an equity membership for residents enrolled in SNAP or recipients of housing vouchers from Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven. This discounted membership is $4/month for unlimited 60-minute rides.

“We’re a small community, 20 square miles, and we’re one of the poorest cities in America, full stop,” says Hausladen.

With this in mind, Ride New Haven partnered with NCAT for several outreach efforts to engage six key neighborhoods in New Haven through a Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant.

Through this grant and partnership with NCAT, Ride New Haven plans to offer 12 bike share-based learn-to-ride and bike safety classes for residents to learn how to utilize the system, ride an electric bicycle, and ride safety. Recruitment for these classes will take place at community events and block parties.

“The grant also includes Bike Share Leaders, which will be recruited from those who took classes with NCAT to become paid trainers in bicycle safety and community outreach,” says Anthony Cherolis, communications, advocacy, and development consultant at NCAT. “They’ll be attending those classes, assisting at those classes while they’re attending, and they’re getting credit for taking them. Those are qualifiers for us to offer three scholarships to the Bike Share Leaders that want to go further and get certified as League Cycling Instructors.”

While the bike share bikes are provided by the vendor Drop Mobility, local bike and skate shop The Devil’s Gear Bike and Board, under its offshoot New Haven Bike Share Mechanics, is handling the operations and maintenance of the system. Devil’s Gear is focused on community and “specializing in micro-transportation.” As Ride New Haven expands, the shop is ready to expand with the program. Hausladen says the parking authority has 300 of the old program’s bikes and his goal is to deploy all 300.

“We’re ready to ramp up,” says John Brehon, who helps run The Devil’s Gear. “We’re ready to hire New Haven [residents] and let people be a part of the system.”

Hausladen hopes that as the city grows its bike and walking network through its Safe Routes for All Plan and secures more funding, the system can expand and make Ride New Haven truly a citywide program.