This day marks the fifth anniversary of the Pacers Bikeshare program – a milestone celebrated in two ways: By a birthday party at the Downtown headquarters, and by the formal announcement of 23 new Bikeshare stations, an expansion which will extend the program well beyond Downtown and nearly double the system’s capacity.
Since the Pacers Bikeshare was launched on April 22, 2014, bicyclists have taken almost 502,000 trips on the gold bikes, riding more than 1 million miles in five years. Pacers
Bikeshare riders have burned more than 43 million calories and offset an estimated 1 million tons of carbon using bike share.
“When we launched the Pacers Bikeshare in 2014, our goal was to make the Cultural Trail, and our Downtown, more accessible and easier for people to travel and explore by bicycle” said Kären Haley, executive director of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which administers the Bikeshare program.
“Five years later, we’ve grown the original system Downtown on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail and are excited to expand Pacers Bikeshare outside of downtown to neighborhoods and destinations that are connected by greenways, trails and bike lanes. We know from our experience with the Cultural Trail that people ride bikes when they have easy access to bicycle infrastructure.”
In late summer, Pacers Bikeshare will add approximately 275 more bikes and 23 more bike share stations. There are currently 29 Pacers Bikeshare stations in Downtown with 250 bicycles.
The expansion will create greater access to Pacers Bikeshare by increasing station density downtown, expanding to near downtown neighborhoods and adding stations along the Monon Trail, White River Trail, Central Canal Towpath and other parts of the city’s bike network including Garfield Park.
“One of our intentions with expansion Pacers Bikeshare is to put bike share stations in neighborhoods instead of only downtown. This is directly related to the
mission of our Everybody Rides program whose mission is to ensure that Pacers Bikeshare is available to everybody, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender or income level,” Haley said. “By expanding our geographic footprint, more people will have access to affordable transportation and active, healthy recreation, too.”
The City of Indianapolis received a nearly $1 million federal grant for the Pacers Bikeshare expansion. The Herbert Simon Family Foundation will provide a portion of the grant’s local match. In addition to the federally funded expansion, Pacers Bikeshare has a business partnership program for business and property owners who desire Pacers Bikeshare stations on or near their place of business.
Pacers Bikeshare is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Annual passes are available online at pacersbikeshare.org and on the BCycle mobile app.
By the Numbers:
5 Years of Pacers Bikeshare
Bikeshare trips: 501,864
Miles: 1,091,542 equal to riding a bike from Seattle to Miami 300 times
Carbon offset: 1,033,418 tons equal to taking 89 cars off the roads
Calories burned: 43,329,423 equal to more than 220,000 donuts
24-Hr passes: 115,037
Annual passes: 6321
Monthly passes: 1065
It’s party time
The public is invited to attend the Bikeshare’s fifth birthday celebration today from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Indianapolis Cultural Trail headquarters located at 132 West Walnut Street, Indianapolis. Mayor Hogsett plans to attend as well.
