OAKLAND (BCN) — A bike-sharing program is being introduced to a trio of East Bay cities for the first time later this year, a bike share company announced Thursday.
Motivate, a large operator of bike share systems, announced Thursday that a series of workshops will be held to determine where the bike share stations should be installed in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville.
These cities are new to Motivate’s Bay Area Bike Share, which was established in San Francisco and San Jose in 2013 as a pilot program.
Motivate officials also announced that the program is being expanded in those two cities.
The company entered into an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to bring Bay Area Bike Share from 700 to 7,000 bikes by 2018, allowing for the presence in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville.
“Motivate’s partnership with MTC gives us another important tool in our efforts to combat climate change and makes bike sharing a reality in our city,” Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said in a statement.
The first workshop to plan for these bike share stations in the East Bay will be held in Berkeley, at 6 p.m. Monday at the YMCA Teen Center on 2111 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Additional workshops in Oakland and Emeryville will occur in February, company officials said. Upcoming workshops will be announced online at bayareabikeshare.com/expansion.
“With Emeryville’s award-winning Pedestrian & Bicycle Plan, our small city is poised to benefit a great deal from yet another option in last-mile transit,” Emeryville Mayor Dianne Martinez said in a statement.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said she “can’t wait to jump on a bike” when the program is brought to her city later this year.
“Active transportation improves public health, promotes economic development, helps the environment, and is fun and affordable,” she added.