At its June 25 monthly meeting, the Metro Board will be voting on the contract for the initial phase of what is now optimistically called "Metro Countywide Bikeshare."
SBLA previewed the regional bike-share system in this earlier post. The initial phase is planned to include 1000+ bicycles at 60+ docking stations in downtown Los Angeles, expected to be operational in early 2016.
According to the recently posted board agenda look-ahead [PDF], Metro has selected bike-share vendor Bicycle Transit Systems. The $11.8 million contract is "contingent upon the execution of an MOU between the City of Los Angeles and Metro" and "future phases will be brought back ...for Board approval contingent upon successful completion and operation of the Phase 1 Pilot."
Bicycle Transit Systems is a somewhat new presence in the bike-share industry, though captained by experienced leadership. The company is based in Philadelphia and headed by former Alta Bike Share CEO Alison Cohen, who led NYC CitiBike during its rocky start-up. To date, the company's big bike-share implementation success has been Philadelphia's Indego, which launched in April 2015 with 600 bikes at 60 stations.
