Local News

OSU-Cascades Celebrates New Bike Stops

BEND, OR -- The OSU-Cascades bike share program is expanding, with two new stations opening Monday in Downtown Bend.

 

The university partnered with Zagster, a company that provides community bike sharing programs, along with Visit Bend, the Old Mill District, and G-5, to launch the program a year ago. Casey Bergh, OSU-Cascades Transportation Program Manager, says the rentals are popular, "Since we opened it to the community last June, we've seen a significant increase in ridership this year. We see a lot of tourists riding, but we also see local residents just taking advantage of a convenient way to get around, maybe bypass traffic, and have fun getting where they're going." It now boasts 55 rental bikes, 1,800 member riders, and has recorded nearly 5,000 user trips since June of 2017.

 

Bergh credits two new sponsors, 10 Barrel and SELCO, with the opening of two new stations, taking the total number of Bend rental stations to eight, "We had six stations: there're three near OSU-Cascades, we had one in downtown, one in Drake Park, and one in the Old Mill. And, the two new stations are launching on Galveston Avenue and the north end of downtown at the corner of Newport and Wall." And, he's excited about plans to grow even more, next year, with a dockless system, "We'd like to expand Bend's system so that we could have up to 20 stations, and any ride that you make could be ended at any public rack. So, it dramatically increases the number of destinations you could take on a bikeshare bike and really opens up the system to the entire city."

 

The university will celebrate the low impact, safe, and fun way for students, residents, and tourists to get around town and the two new stations with a ribbon cutting Monday at noon, "We're going to have some representatives from Commute Options and other partners." He tells KBND News, "Come out, and we'll just be out to promote the program and share with folks how they can get access to bikes." The ribbon cutting is on Galveston, between 12th and Federal. 

On Air Now

Lars Larson
Lars Larson
12:00pm - 3:00pm
Lars Larson

FlashAlert

KBND ON FACEBOOK

News Disclaimers