Better Bike Share Partnership Living Lab Program: Grantee Case Studies

In 2021, the Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) selected five cities to be “Living Labs” – testing grounds for innovative, equitable solutions in bike share. The Living Lab program is designed to support, showcase, and learn lessons from partnerships that are addressing a key barrier to access and use of bike share for communities of color and those living with limited incomes.

• Chicago: The Northwest Center, a nonprofit based in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, created an outreach campaign to empower youth to design and roll out programs that will focus on bikes to connect the neighborhood to other transit options, jobs, schools, and one another.
• Cincinnati: Red Bike looked to expand its youth programming and to support expansion through community partnerships, low income GO Pass program and managing the weekly youth bike rides.
• Detroit: MoGo focused on building a bike-to-bus connection, seamlessly integrating transit and bike share. Their efforts entailed realignment and expansion on bike stations near bus stops, community education and outreach, and partnering with a local kiosk based company to allow cash payments for memberships.
• Philadelphia: Indego focused on neighborhood expansion of bike share and enhanced community outreach and engagement through ambassadors, discounted Indego bike share passes, and bicycle skills courses and trainings.
• Portland: Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) rolled out its Prescribe-a-Bike program, which allows local health clinics to prescribe BIKETOWN electric bikes as medicine. PBOT also focused on increasing ridership for high school students and low-income users through outreach, education, and membership in its low-income discount program.

Outcomes of each Living Lab are described in the individual case studies. The case studies provide an overview of the activities undertaken in each city, results of the programs and specific lessons learned. Below are the broader takeaways and lessons learned from the grantees from participating in the BBSP Living Lab program.