Better Bike Share Partnership Announces Five Living Lab Cities Focused on Equity

BOULDER, COLO. (Feb. 17, 2021) —The Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP), a collaboration funded by The JPB Foundation to build equitable and replicable shared micromobility systems, is pleased to announce the selection of its Living Lab grantees. BBSP will provide five organizations with funding, support and additional resources as they work to develop best practices addressing significant barriers to shared micromobility.

“Being a Living Lab means taking a deep dive into addressing the obstacles that affect access to and use of shared micromobility systems,” said Tangier Barnes Wright, partnership and program manager at the PeopleForBikes Foundation, a founding partner of the BBSP. “At the end of two and a half years, the Living Labs communities will share unique and replicable approaches to achieving equity in shared micromobility that can be utilized nationwide.”

 The Living Labs grantees will build on the work of Philadelphia — the first BBSP Living Lab city — and many others by piloting, expanding, replicating or scaling strategies and tactics to improve shared micromobility for historically marginalized populations.

“These five organizations crafted creative and thoughtful proposals to look deeply at how and why people use shared micromobility — or don’t,” said Zoe Kircos, director of grants and partnerships at PeopleForBikes. “We look forward to sharing the progress, challenges and lessons learned from these Living Labs in the years ahead.”

The following projects received Living Labs funding:

Bikes for Belmont Cragin

Chicago, IL

The Northwest Side Housing Center will work with partners to amplify the voice of youth in Chicago’s micromobility planning and implementation efforts. Teens from the Belmont Cragin neighborhood will help design and roll out a community education campaign that will focus on bikes as a way to connect the neighborhood to other transit options. Additionally, members of the Belmont Cragin Youth Leadership Council will learn bike mechanic and handling skills, which they will use to help educate their community about bike share and the many benefits of bicycling.

Building the Bike-to-Bus Connection

Detroit, MI

MoGo, a Detroit-based nonprofit organization, and its partners will work together to identify and address the technical, behavioral and structural barriers associated with bus and bike share trips in order to create better connected transportation options in Metro Detroit. Feedback and data collected from local residents will inform strategies that MoGo will pilot and test over the course of the grant.

Indego BBSP Team

Philadelphia, PA

The City of Philadelphia, along with partners at Bicycle Transit Systems and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, will continue to refine and expand its ambassador programs and deep community engagement work, with a particular focus on the new neighborhoods that will be served by Indego’s (Philadelphia’s bike share program) extensive expansion. Additional program offerings, such as the Indego Champions and Changing Gears programs, will also be scaled up based on pilot projects completed in 2020.

PDX Prescribe-a-Bike

Portland, OR

The Portland Bureau of Transportation and its partner, the Multnomah County REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) Program, will help local community health workers provide BIKETOWN (Portland’s bike share program) access, education and support for clients who receive county health assistance, all with the overall goal of improving health outcomes.

Red Bike Go

Cincinnati, OH

Red Bike (Cincinnati’s bike share system) will supercharge its highly successful Red Bike Go program, implementing and assessing a variety of new strategies to increase community involvement as it expands into two new neighborhoods. Its approach will include creative partnerships with schools and community-based organizations, youth ambassadors and youth-focused programming with the integration of art throughout.

About Better Bike Share Partnership

The Better Bike Share Partnership is a collaboration funded by The JPB Foundation to build equitable and replicable shared micromobility systems. The partners include The City of Philadelphia, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) and the PeopleForBikes Foundation.

About PeopleForBikes

PeopleForBikes is making biking better for everyone by uniting millions of Americans, thousands of businesses and hundreds of communities to make every bike ride safer, more accessible and more fun. When people ride bikes, great things happen. Join us at PeopleForBikes.org.