By Michael Polhamus | Posted: Wednesday, July 29, 2015 4:30 am
Now two weeks old, a bike share public transportation program has users saying they like both the convenience and the bikes.
Through the efforts of a couple of Jackson Hole nonprofits the bikes will be in town for another week as part of a trial. The 25 shared bicycles are on hand for the public to use until Aug. 5.
Brian Carew said he was hooked after the first ride. “One of my friends works with Friends of Pathways, so she came into the bank where I work handing out fliers, and she told me about it and signed me up,” the Jackson resident said. “I talked to her about it, and have been using it ever since.
“It’s fairly simple and easy to use,” Carew said. “It’s a great thing to have around town — very convenient.”
That convenience is in part a function of the bikes’ locations, he said. “I typically walk, so if I need one, I grab it,” Carew said. “They’re all up and down Pearl Street, by the rec center, at Albertsons. They’re in locations where I do stumble across them.
“I don’t have a bike myself, so having them at random points is very nice for me,” he said. Signing up to use the bikes wasn’t much trouble, he said. “Right now they’re doing a free trial ... so you have to give a credit card, but it’s not charged,” he said. “You give your credit card and sign up. They send you a six digit user name, and you create a four digit PIN. Then you can walk up to any of the bikes around town, type in your info, and you’re
good to go.”
Another rider said he was able to try out a bike without even signing up and found the experience agreeable. Kevin Keane said he recently met a friend who had just returned from riding one of the bikeshare bikes. She let him take it out on an errand.
“I ride quite a bit,” he said. “I actually thought it was a fun ride. It’s pretty close to a townie. It
weighs a lot ... but it rode totally fine.” Keane said he plans to use the service in the future.
“I haven’t signed up for it, but I will based on my experience last week,” he said.
Friends of Pathways, with the LOR Foundation, brought the bikes to Jackson on July 15 to see whether enough people would use them to justify a permanent bike share system. If instituted permanently the bike share program would let riders use the bikes for half an hour for free. A rider’s credit card will be charged for time beyond that half hour until the bike is returned.
The bikes can be found at the Home Ranch building, at Pearl Street Bagels, at the base of Snow King and next to Albertsons, among other places in town.