Official: City still plans to take over bike share program, but planned expansion “being reviewed”

Pronto Cycle Share received an unwelcome belated one-year birthday present this week, as the federal government passed on contributing $10 million to, in part, help expand the bicycle network, according to Rick Sheridan, spokesperson with the Seattle Department of Transportation. Despite the setback, Sheridan said the city’s plans to take over the Pronto program haven’t changed, though the planned expansion is “currently being reviewed based on the federal grant decision.”

“The city still intends to move forward with assuming control of the bike share program,” he said. “While staff and volunteer leadership have done a tremendous job in bringing bike share to Seattle, city control of the program would make it easier to manage and expand the system.”

The city is planning to take over the bike sharing project from a nonprofit and was counting on the federal grant funds as part of a major expansion. The $25 million federal grant application also included money to fund a pedestrian bridge over I-5 in Northgate and safety improvements for bike and pedestrian pathways.

Related: Who uses Seattle’s bike share program?

The grant requested money to expand the bike-share system, which currently serves a five-square-mile area ranging from the University District to downtown, to 42 square miles. That included connections with North Seattle College and South Seattle College, which serve a higher proportion of low-income and minority students than the city-at-large. The system was also expected to expand to areas including West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Columbia City, Queen Anne and Fremont. The city also wanted to add electric bikes to help riders with the city’s mammoth hills.

Sheridan said the grant would have paid for the stations and bikes.

“Though the proposed city budget does include funds for bike share, we are evaluating next steps for both funding and equipment,” he said.

Sheridan added that officials are currently evaluating alternate non-City funding sources, “though no decisions have been made at this time.”

KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson, an outspoken critic of Pronto, said he was happy about Uncle Sam’s decision not to fund the bike or pedestrian bridge projects. On Dori’s Facebook page, he suggested sending Murray a consolation prize &#8212 a bike bell.

The Times reported that city wanted to start adding bikes next year, ultimately expanding from 500 bikes for 50 stations to 2,500 bikes and 250 stations. The mayor’s budget proposal called for a $5 million city contribution to purchase the 2,000 additional bikes.

According to The Times, out of $124 billion in requests nationally over the past six years, the federal TIGER grant program awarded $4 billion.

An official told The Times that there is no money allocated in the proposed $930 Move Seattle levy to expand Pronto. However, the levy does include funds for the Northgate overpass and other bike/pedestrian efforts.