Summit Bike Share increased its ridership by 20% this year with a total of 17,000 rides, according to Transportation Planning Director Carl Miller, who attributes the program’s success to a full season of operations, marketing campaigns and new stations.“Last year was the first year that we ran the program as the county,” Miller said. “Previously, we had a service provider who ran it, so that was our first year running the program. We learned a lot, and this year has been even more successful.”Bike share programs are becoming more popular throughout the country, especially in tourist destinations like ski resort towns, according to Miller. The programs allow people to rent and return bicycles or e-bikes at approved stations in a specific geographical area, such as Summit County.To use the program in Summit County, riders need to download the official Summit Bike Share app. Then they can purchase a pass, which will let the rider check out an e-bike from one of the stations in Summit County. There are multiple passes available depending on the riders’ needs, including an individual pass, monthly pass, four-day pass and season pass.“We’re continuing to constantly try to improve the user application because if the system is frustrating and complicated to use, folks aren’t going to give it that much time and they’re going to walk away,” said county active transportation planner Senta Beyer. “Our hope is to continue to educate our users on how to use the app, how to use the bikes and to help them better understand the system.”In addition to maintaining and updating the mobile app, part of the county’s success with the bike share includes new stations at the Park City Hospital and the Lincoln Station apartments, as well as the reopening of the Park Avenue station after it was shut down by a construction project.“We’re considering a program to let locals have the first 10 minutes for free on the bikes during the shoulder season, so before the peak in July, Pioneer Day, the 4th of July, those kinds of events,” Miller said. “But for the first and last month of the season, we want to enable locals to really enjoy the bikes, to get out and recreate, run errands between their office and their home and a restaurant, those kinds of things.”Miller said operating Summit Bike Share in-house instead of contracting with a third-party company has helped the program financially. Beyer manages the program and employs one full-time and one part-time bike mechanic, as well as two seasonal bike mechanics during the summer.“We really try to keep the ratio of bikes to mechanics fairly streamlined, especially compared to some larger systems, and at the same time make sure that we’re repairing the bikes and providing good customer service to our community,” Miller explained. “As we grow the program, we may need to add more staff down the road in correlation with additional revenues that we expect from adding new bikes and new stations into the system.”The bike share program broke even financially last season, which Miller said isn’t typical for bike share programs. Typically, bike shares need government subsidiaries to stay afloat, but the Summit Bike Share hasn’t needed to tap into those resources yet because of its three sponsors: the Park City Chamber/Bureau, Intermountain Healthcare and Deer Valley Resort.“We’re hoping to continue to tap into our business community to see how we can broaden our sponsorship and get the bikes more into the fabric of the community,” Beyer said.Right now, residents who have feedback on the bike share, including suggestions for new stations, can take the Summit Bike Share’s end-of-season survey. Miller said he also hopes to gauge interest in the proposed locals-focused programs.“It’s the most sustainable and enjoyable way to get around in the community,” he said about the bike share. “That’s really why we’re asking the community for participation in this survey, to get their feedback, to find out how we can better serve the local residents in the county and in Park City, to find out how they would want to use this system.”The survey, which is open until Dec. 13, is available at summitbikeshare.com.The post Bike Share ridership grows by a fifth after county takes program in-house appeared first on Park Record.