The training wheels have come off! Those stylish bikes from the Bike Chattanooga Bicycle Transit System locked up all over the city are ready to roll as of July 23. Currently, there are 300 bicycles in a network with 28 stations available for cross-town manual locomotion. Part of the delay was due to the technological advances integrated into the system that are now fully in place.
Each kiosk features solar technology, a user-friendly seven-inch color LCD screen, hybrid credit card readers, secondary locking devices, a wireless GPS interface, a member card and smart card reader (not to mention bicycles for rent) as part of a system upgrade that was being tested.
“We really appreciate the public’s support in this innovative project. The City of Chattanooga and our community will continue to work as development partners with PBSC Urban Solutions and Alta Bicycle Share to improve bicycle transit technology. It’s very exciting that the city’s residents and visitors will get to try these new innovations first,” said Phillip Pugliese, the new system’s bicycle coordinator, in a news release.
As with any guinea pig scenario, the allure is getting to try things for the first time. As a result of the partnership between the City of Chattanooga, Alta Bicycle Share and PBSC Urban Solutions, Bike Chattanooga will be equipped with the latest versions of hardware and software in the bicycle-sharing community and serve as a model market for the bicycle-sharing movement.
By the sound of things, the wait will be worth it. According to Alaine Ayotte, CEO of PBSC, “We thank the City of Chattanooga for its assistance and support in developing this new system, which is a tangible improvement over our original design and will now be used in all new cities, including New York.”
Let the pedaling begin.
—Cole Rose