Alabama power bike share

Alabama Power employees in Birmingham take part in a bike share program in 2011. (AL.com file photo)

If you could grab a bike and ride it from your office in the medical district to a lunch spot on the downtown square instead of driving, would you?

Downtown Huntsville Inc. is doing some exploratory research on bike share programs, like one about to get started in Birmingham, to help city officials decide whether to bring one here.

Chad Emerson, president and CEO of DHI, recently took a weekend trip up I-65 and checked out bike-share programs in Nashville, Louisville, Columbus and Cincinnati.

"Most people will walk about a quarter of a mile. People will bike a mile or a mile and a half if it's an interesting area," said Emerson. "Our downtown isn't big enough to really need a trolley system or some other type of fixed rail system. But you want to keep the nodes connected and a bike share program would do that more efficiently. Plus it's less expensive and promotes healthy living."

Emerson said he doesn't envision a 400-bike program like Birmingham will roll out in the fall, with 40 docking stations around the downtown area. Huntsville would likely start with a program about the size of the one in Spartanburg, S.C., a similar sized city that has five docking stations around its downtown.

It wouldn't be the first bike-share program in town. UAH operates the ChargerCycle bike share program for its students and employees, and provides each a code to unlock the bikes and ride them for free. Regions Bank also provides free signature green bikes to cruise downtown on Thursday nights when Greene Street Market is open.

Most city bike-share programs are pay-to-ride, with the cyclist unlocking the bike using a credit card or buying an annual membership in the $80 range.

"Usually the first 60 minutes are free," Emerson said.

Like in Birmingham, the program could be paid for with a combination of money, including federal transportation grants, city matching money and corporate sponsorships. Regions Bank and Blue Cross/Blue Shield are sponsoring the Birmingham program.

A bike-share program could be a cool thing to promote for tourists, but it really needs to focus on and be used by locals, Emerson said.

"I can imagine an employee at the hospital, grabbing a bike in Five Points and riding to work through Old Town and Twickenham," Emerson said.

DHI is evaluating the bike share idea, and will likely work with city planners soon to determine if it's something that the city should pursue for downtown.

"When you see that something is a trend, then you really have to start evaluating that, and this bike share program is becoming a really big trend," Emerson said.

So what do you think? Have you used a bike-share program somewhere else? How was it?

Would you use a bike share program if it came to Huntsville? Let us know in the comments section below.