Community Corner

City May Add 800 Wheels to Long Beach Streets

Council votes to table proposal for bicycle renting program.

Hundreds of new bicycles may hit Long Beach’s streets and boardwalk, but not before city officials consider more carefully a proposed bike rental program.

The City Council voted 3-2 to table City Manager Charles Theofan’s proposal to enter a contract with the Miami-based Decobike that would make two-wheelers available to the public throughout Long Beach. The six-year contract includes corporate sponsorship and advertising, and the city would receive 10 percent for both gross and advertising incomes.

Theofan said many of Long Beach’s multiunit residences have no storage facilities, leaving people with the option to either keep their two-wheelers indoors or be bikeless. “This will give all our residents the ability to bicycle,” he said. 

The program involves 400 bicycles stored in docket-like racks that hold 10 bikes each in 40 citywide locations.

Decobike, which conducts one such program in its native South Beach, will do all the work necessary to start the program, possibly by September, at no expense to the city, Theofan said.

Councilmen Michael Fagen, who along with President Thomas Sofield Jr. and Len Torres voted to table the proposal, asked Theofan about using the city’s existing bike stores.  

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“Why would we have not gone to these business and try to help them by offering them an incentive to do rental bicycles in a similar fashion,” he asked.

Theofan explained that the program is citywide, requires users to rent on a monthly basis and allows them to ride a bike from a docket in one part of town and drop it off in another part, whereas local bike shops typically rent bikes for a day and require their return at the same location.

Theofan noted that the program provides the city with additional revenue, projecting that it can generate as much as $5 million annually for Decobike and as much as $500,000 for the city.

Both Sofield and Fagen requested a shorter contract, possibly with a two-year opt out clause. “If this doesn’t work for the city, we now have a six-year contract,” Sofield said.

Theofan said the program cannot be made a pilot because Decobike is investing heavily, up to $1 million, to start it, but that he would ask for a shorter contract and would insist, as Sofield suggested, that the contract require Decobike give all repairs to local shops.

While Torres supports increased bike use in Long Beach, he expressed concern that the city's lack of bikes lanes means the program may produce more cyclists riding on busy sidewalks.

“The bikes lanes make clear to everyone that this is where you ride your bike,” he said.

If the program proves successful, Theofan replied, the city will look to utilize revenue it receives from it to create bike lanes.

Rick Hoffman, president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association, pointed out that the bicycle dockets are large, storage-type facilities and not mere racks. “Where are we going to hide those bikes,” Hoffman asked.

Goodman, who along with John McLaughlin voted not to table the proposal, praised the program. “This is a way of getting people out of their cars,” she said. “This is a wonderful thing for Long Beach.”

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