Increasing Access to Bike Share in the East Bay

In response to the recent expansion of a local bike share operator, Bike East Bay is connecting new riders to the system through its programming.

Community-based organization Bike East Bay focuses on advocacy, education, and engagement to make biking safe, fun, and accessible for its densely populated region in California’s Bay Area. Thanks to Bike East Bay’s programming, more than 25,000 people have learned to bike safely and confidently at no cost since the group began in 2011, with one of their offerings being bike share education classes.

While Bike East Bay paused their bike share classes due to a lack of funding, according to Nancy Hernandez, education program co-manager at Bike East Bay, the expansion of Bay Wheels, a local bike share operator, in East Bay re-ignited a desire to connect the community through bike share. When the Better Bike Share Partnership announced our latest mini-grant round earlier this March, Bike East Bay took the opportunity to apply in order to engage local community members around the benefits of bike share.

The recent expansion included Bay Wheels adding 24 docking stations and more than 700 docked e-bikes to its regional bike share system in the East Bay area including Oakland, Berkeley, and Emeryville.

“We were interested in being part of that movement and taking advantage of that momentum with the expansion — to bring awareness to it and specifically bring it to the communities that need it most,” says Hernandez.

Bike East Bay’s Increasing Access to Bike Share in the East Bay project aims to build off of its existing bike education curriculum while introducing participants to the Bay Wheels bike share system through collaboration with affordable housing sites in Oakland. 

Due to the organization’s work with affordable housing through California’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, they know this demographic needs transportation options that are low-cost and easy to access.

The project comes to life as a series of three Bike Share 101 Workshop and Group Ride classes to teach bicycling need-to-knows for riding in the city, urban safety, and bike helmet safety. At the end of each workshop portion, participants get assistance signing up for Bay Wheels and are introduced to its Bike Share for All equity program before embarking on a group ride. 

At the end of class, participants provide anonymous feedback to help Bike East Bay make adjustments to improve future classes.

“I used to have my own bike but because I have been struggling with housing, I wasn’t able to keep my bike and I’ve since stopped cycling,” says a bike share class participant. “I didn’t realize that there were resources available to me so that even without my own bike, I could still cycle and get around! I really appreciate the resource now that I know it’s there and I can be more mobile and connected to Oakland.”

Bike East Bay’s latest bike share education class took place last Saturday, September 28, in partnership with Berkeley Public Library at its West Branch location near a local affordable housing site.

The community buy-in is what Hernandez says makes the classes so successful. By tapping into their existing network of community-based organizations, the city, and the public library, Bike East Bay can make its free programming available to even more people.

“I think these classes are really important in making bike share more accessible to everybody, and making it seem like, ‘Hey, that’s something that I can do, too,’” says Hernandez.