Revived Bend bike share program plans to add more bikes, new locations

(Update: adding video, comments from city official, OSU-Cascades)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bike sharing in Bend arrived in 2016, but was another victim of the pandemic that hit last year.

However, Tobias Marx, Parking Services Division manager with the City of Bend, said the system could come back even bigger quite soon.

"Knowing that the 55 bikes in the past were used really, really well, and often, we feel that having more bikes will only make it better.” Marx said Thursday. 

The bike-sharing service allows a person to rent a bike from one station in Bend, and return it at any of the other stations when they're done.

The service was first launched in 2016 by Oregon State University Cascades with the company Zagster. It was paused in 2020 when Zagster shut down, due to the pandemic. 

The re-launch of the program is still in partnership with OSU-Cascades, but would be partially funded by a new nonprofit associated with the Oregon Department of Transportation called Cascadia Mobility.

The nonprofit also will work with other cities in Oregon, including Eugene.

Marx said despite the pandemic, this is the perfect time to bring the program back.

"Bike share programs have actually been very successful.” Marx said. “Better than anyone would have expected, because of the pandemic."

While not all locations have been confirmed, Marx said they plan to use 75 to 100 bikes at seven different stations this summer.

If all goes well, they want to expand the bike share program to more under-served parts of Bend, such as the east side near St. Charles.

Casey Bergh, transportation program manager at OSU-Cascades, said the number of issues or incidents with the bikes in the past has been slim.

"Less than the number of fingers on my two hands, over that three-, four-year period," Bergh said.

Marx joked about the idea that bikes may end up abandoned in a river. 

“I don’t think there were that many bikes, maybe none that actually ended up in the river, ever,” Marx said.

Marx and Bergh say they believe the bikes are a cheap, energy-efficient way to help with, among other things, downtown parking issues.

"Maybe we can get some of these drivers away from searching for parking in downtown, which is already so busy, to go park in the garage, jump on a bike, explore the city and come back,” Marx said. 

The relaunch details will become official in a few weeks, but Marx is hopeful to get bikes back on the streets some time in July.