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Just in time for a CicLAvia event this weekend, Metro is bringing its expanding bike share to multiple Westside neighborhoods.
The transit agency announced today that “several” of the 60 bike stations it plans to install over the next few weeks in Mar Vista, Palms, Playa del Rey, and Playa Vista will be open Sunday, when roads from Culver City to Mar Vista will be closed to cars for the popular open streets festival.
Those new stations will be equipped with “smart bikes,” which do not have to be returned at stations. Instead, users can pay a small fee to lock the vehicles at any bike rack, eliminating the need for riders to hunt for a station with available bike docks. The Westside bikes will be the first in Metro’s bike share system to be equipped with this technology.
The bike share program already covers Downtown LA, Venice, and the Port of Los Angeles. Earlier this week, the agency also began adding new stations in Westlake, Koreatown, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Rampart Village.
New bikes and stations could attract more riders to the system, which hasn’t seen the same level of use as similar systems in other U.S. cities.
In a move to lure riders, Metro reduced prices for bike rentals in July—from $3.50 for a 30-minute trip to $1.75.
Until then, the agency had reported that its bikes in Downtown LA were being used less than once a day, on a per-bike basis. Meanwhile, even in the dead of winter, New York City’s Citi Bike system draws more than three riders per bike per day.
Like other bikes in Metro’s system, the new Westside bicycles can be rented using TAP cards or a credit card.
Sunday’s CicLAvia runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The route covers most of the Culver City stretch of Washington Boulevard, as well as segments of Motor Avenue, Centinela Avenue, and Venice Boulevard. For more details on the event, head over to CicLAvia’s website.
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