Impact Report: Inside the TUGO Bike Share Living Lab

A look into how equitable station planning and culturally grounded community engagement expanded access to bike share in the west and south sides of Tucson.

Living Labs has allowed me to align neighbors and partners of historical neighborhoods with FUGA’s goal of building resilient communities through collaboration and creation of joyful spaces,” said Vanessa Gallego, FUGA (Familias Unidas Ganando Accesibilidad) program manager. “The focused engagement created a community that reimagines their streets for safer, accessible barrios using micromobility as a tool.

In 2024, the Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) chose four cities for its second cohort of Living Labs, focused on developing replicable programs to improve access to shared micromobility in BIPOC and low-income communities, with each city awarded $200,000 over two years.

Today, we share the story of how Tugo Bike Share and FUGA (Familias Unidas Ganando Accesibilidad) partnered to make bike share more accessible for Tucson’s south and west side neighborhoods. Explore the interactive StoryMap highlighting the impact of their Living Lab!

In Tucson, Tugo Bike Share used its Living Lab to build a responsive and community-rooted bike share system. Through a collaboration with FUGA, local bike clubs, and neighborhood leaders, the lab strengthened access to bike share across the south and west sides of Tucson through station redistribution while building trust with neighbors and creating mobility experiences rooted in community.

The Advancing Equitable Bike Share in Tucson StoryMap highlights the Tugo Equity Priority Index at work. The index is a GIS-informed framework used to evaluate station placement, access gaps, and opportunities for future system growth.

The City of Tucson’s Living Lab made community engagement the foundation of its work to build access in the west and south sides of Tucson. Key community-level outcomes include:

• Five planned station relocations informed by equity analysis.
• 70+ first-time riders introduced to the bike share system through Living Lab events.
• Tugo For All (equity-based discounted annual pass) membership usage reached 10% of total members.
• 6% of rides taken by low-income riders.

Through this Living Lab, Tugo Bike Share learned two key lessons on how to build equitable bike share systems through trust, community relationships, and flexibility.

1. Community engagement must be grounded in trust and joy.
2. Data must be paired with lived experience.

👉 Check Out the Tugo Living Lab StoryMap Impact Report Here 👈

The Better Bike Share Partnership’s StoryMaps series was produced with advisory support from Excellence in Innovation.