Bay Area Bike Share May Expand to Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is considering expansion of the Bay Area Bike Share program to Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville. An MTC committee will vote on funding for the additional locations at its meeting next Wednesday. MTC staff have also recommended that additional locations be analyzed for further expansion.

The East Bay was not included in the bike share pilot that launched with 700 bikes last August in San Francisco and the Peninsula.

Despite that, Alameda County has the second-highest number of Bay Area Bike Share memberships.

“We’ve got a built-in demand,” said Renee Rivera of Bike East Bay. She’s pushing to bring 350 to 500 bikes to a corridor near BART.

“I think everyone is in agreement right now that an East Bay pilot makes a lot of sense, and we know we’re going to see good usage over here,” Rivera said.

Rivera says she would love to see those light-blue bikes in the East Bay by Bike to Work Day in 2015.

As of last week, 160,000 bike trips total have been taken in the five Bay Area cities participating in the program.

Jon Brooks contributed to this report.