City of Santa Cruz says bike share program is exceeding expectations

If you’ve been to Santa Cruz in the past few months, you’ve probably seen the bright colored bikes.

According to the city that’s because more than 5,000 people have signed up since the start of the program in May.

Transportation Planner, Clair Fliesler says, “the bike share program has traveled over 37 thousand miles and each bike is averaging 4 and a half trips a day. To compare that to the national average, most bike share systems have bikes that go 1-2 trips per day. So we are vastly exceeding what the expectations were.”

KION spoke with some locals who have tried the program and have been pleasantly surprised, “they’re user friendly and they’re a lot of fun actually. so ya fast, get from point A to point B pretty quick,” says Nick Meyer.

While the program is going well there are a few things Fliesler says riders need to be reminded of, “you must be 18 to use the system, so parents please do not sign your children up for the system, some instances where people are riding two to a bike, you must ride one to a bike. and we always recommend that you where helmets.”

KION’S Ashley Keehn will have more tonight at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.