Bay Area Bike Share to begin in Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville in 2015
The Bay Area Bike Share service allows participants to check out bikes for free for up to 30 minutes, and pay for extra minutes. The program began last summer in San Francisco, San Jose, Redwood City, Palo Alto and Mountain View.
Bay Area Bike Share would install 60 bike stations in an 8 1/2-square-mile area of the East Bay and stock them with about 750 bikes – 450 in Oakland, 300 in Berkeley and an undecided number in Emeryville. Locations for the bike stations are yet to be determined.
Under the current Bay Area Bike Share program, users can rent bikes by either paying for an annual membership online for $88 or buying one- or three-day rentals at a kiosk. One-day memberships are $9, and three-day rentals are $22. Bikes can be returned to any station, and there are overtime fees.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday allocated $8.7 million that provides much of the funding to start the bike service in these three East Bay communities in late 2015.