Pittsburgh's bike-share program to get upgrade with electric bikes, mobility hubs

With electrified bikes and mobility hubs, Pittsburgh’s bike network is set to get an upgrade.

Mayor Bill Peduto — along with the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure and Healthy Ride — announced the Pittsburgh Bike Share Electrification and Mobility Hubs Project, an initiative to upgrade the city’s bike-share system.

Currently, Healthy Ride operates a bike-share program in the city that allows people to rent conventional pedal bikes. That program will be expanded to include new electrified bikes.

The initiative also calls for new bike racks outfitted with docking hardware for electric scooters and other motorized mobility devices. These mobility hubs would be placed throughout the city and at existing Healthy Ride bike-share stations in an effort to better connect Pittsburgh to electrified micro-mobility options.

“Creating greater access to equitable mobility options has been a cornerstone of my administration,” Peduto said. “Ensuring our residents have access to quality transportation creates greater opportunity for all citywide.”

Healthy Ride will launch a new bike-share system in the coming year that will feature e-assist bicycles, in addition to the traditional pedal bikes already available. On-street charging stations will create a new network of infrastructure to support the electric bikes throughout the Healthy Ride Network.

Healthy Ride is slated to begin uninstalling 50 Healthy Ride stations throughout the city Wednesday in preparation for installing new electric units in 2022.

“In 2021, Healthy Ride began plans to rebuild the bike-share system holding equity as the core value,” said David White, executive director of Bike Share Pittsburgh. “We established a community coalition of partners, customers and stakeholders to help guide the process of building a better bike-share program for Pittsburgh. Electrification and e-assist bicycles are essential to this shift.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program awarded the city $900,000 to support the project. The city will provide an additional $225,000.

The measure requires approval from City Council. It was introduced to council Tuesday and could gain final approval within two weeks.

Other cities — including Madison, Wis., Charlotte, N.C., and Chicago — have implemented similar programs, which sparked increased bike-share usage by a more diverse group of riders, the mayor’s office said.