NKY sees Red Bike value, seeks money for stations

You might see more of Red Bike's bicycles crossing the Ohio River if Northern Kentucky leaders can find the money.

City and business leaders in Newport, Covington and Bellevue have started looking for money to put in 10 to 12 bike-sharing stations by the All-Star Game.

It's just a matter of where to get the $50,000 per Red Bike station.

More than 40 people from the three river cities filled a meeting room this month at the World Peace Bell in Newport to plan how to bring the bike-sharing program to Northern Kentucky.

Covington wants five Red Bike locations, including in the Roebling Point and MainStrasse areas, and on Pike Street, Mayor Sherry Carran said. If all goes well, Red Bikes would go by Newport on the Levee and along Bellevue's shopping district on Fairfield Avenue.

"I think it's really important," Carran said. "We have had people coming (over) from Cincinnati thinking that we would have docking stations here, and we didn't. The more we have of that, the more we'll have people parking and going to restaurants in Covington, and walking all over to Cincinnati."

The response on both sides of the river to bike sharing has exceeded the expectations of the Red Bike operators. People have ridden Ride Bike bikes in Cincinnati more than 15,000 times since it launched on the Ohio side in September, said Jason Barron, Red Bike executive director. Even during weather that hung just above 0 degrees, Red Bike logged 60 rides in a day, Barron said.

"I think that is because riding a bike is fun and people are rediscovering that," Barron said.

He thinks Northern Kentucky can support 12 Red Bike stations. They just need to find a way to pay for it.

The City of Cincinnati put up $1.1 million to put in 30 Red Bike stations with 260 bikes. Red Bike plans on adding more this summer, but the locations haven't been determined, Barron said.

Northern Kentucky cities don't seem likely to pony up that much money, though some leaders wouldn't rule that out.

Carran and others will look toward private sector donors. Some developers have expressed interest, but no one has yet come forward, Carran said.

"It may not be one lump sum," the mayor said. "We may have a number of people at a smaller level, so you may actually have three to five sponsors per station."

Business owners and Northern Kentucky residents hope it happens.

Paul Weckman sees himself riding Red Bikes to do business on both sides of the river. He also thinks it could bring more people to his Covington MainStrasse restaurant, Otto's. Weckman, who has owned the eatery for 12 years, has seen the number of cyclists coming in increase.

He thinks Red Bike will get more people to cross the Ohio River. That would be good news for Weckman, and his wife, Emily, who plan to open another restaurant down the street in MainStrasse this May called Frida's.

"We really are the south side of Cincinnati," Weckman said. "We're so attached to Cincinnati, it would be foolish not to link ourselves with what's going on there."

Red Bike costs $8 for a day of usage, or $80 for a year. With annual memberships or daily memberships, each ride is limited to 60 minutes, although it can be used as many times as needed.

Bike sharing has taken off in recent years across the country. After starting on the West Coast in the 1990s, bike-sharing programs spread across Northern America, providing 9,000 bicycles from 750 stations by by 2011, according to the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Proponents of bike sharing say it's only grown bigger in the past three years.

Jody Robinson, Bellevue Main Street manager and assistant city administrator, said bike sharing will bring Northern Kentucky on par with other parts of the country.

"We really are feeling like we're emerging into a cosmopolitan city that no longer people are going to be making fun of," Robinson said. "It's lively. It attracts young people and empty nesters."