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Cleveland's young bike-sharing network is expanding to three new neighborhoods today, less than six weeks after the program's launch in Ohio City and at the Superior Viaduct. A bike station from the September roll-out of the Zagster rental system is shown here, in the alley between the Market Garden Brewery and the West Side Market in Ohio City.

(Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The bike-sharing program that zipped into Cleveland less than six weeks ago is already expanding past its initial launch site of Ohio City.

Sponsors of the Zagster bike rental stations will announce three new locations today:

-- A downtown station on West 6th Street sponsored by Barley House Cleveland

-- A Tremont station, located in front of Civilization Cafe on West 11th Street, sponsored by Tremont West Development Corporation, Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, Platform Brewery and Civilization Cafe/City Roast Coffee

-- A University Circle station at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Cornell Road, sponsored by Courtyard by Marriott Cleveland University Circle

Sixteen bikes will be stationed among the three new sites and available for rental beginning at noon today. The expansion brings Zagster's city-wide fleet to 50 bikes.

The bike-share program got underway Sept. 10 with 34 of the light-framed Breezer-brand bikes scattered among five rental stations in Ohio City and one at the Superior Viaduct.

Initial sponsors were Justin Carson, a co-owner of Platform Beer Co.; Graham Veysey and Marika Shioiri-Clark of the Hingetown area of Ohio City; Sam McNulty of Bar 25 LLC and Market Garden Brewery; Daniel Brennan, chief marketing officer of Skylight Financial Group; Rafid Fadul, a Cleveland Clinic doctor and manager of Left Side Developments LLC, which bought the Superior Viaduct Lofts in November; Brian Zimmerman, chief executive of Cleveland Metroparks; and Tom McNair, interim director of Ohio City Inc.

"The initial launch did exactly what we wanted it to do - drive awareness and spur additional interest in membership and sponsorship," Timothy Ericson, co-founder and chief executive of Zagster, said in a prepared statement. "We're thrilled that we can expand to additional areas of the city to make the program more applicable to more residents this year while we work on our expansion plans for next year."

In an email Ericson expanded on the pace of business so far: "It is safe to say that they are averaging one rental per bike per day on "bikeable" days (days that lend themselves to biking). Obviously, on less favorable days they see a little less."

Ericson said Zagster is working with several organizations on additional sponsorship deals but is not currently releasing with whom. The Breezers typically carry the logo of their business sponsor.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based bike-sharing company has specialized in partnering with corporations including General Motors and Hyatt, and campuses, including Yale and Duke universities. The Cleveland program is unusual because of its private sector backing.

Jacob VanSickle, executive director of Bike Cleveland, said the bike-sharing venture in Cleveland is getting positive reviews from users. He said proponents anticipate that ridership data from the early stages of the program will help build a case for a city-wide bike-share system in Cleveland.

The nimble and low-cost nature of Zagster's model -- bikes can be rented with a mobile app and are tethered to minimalist bike stations instead of the expensive, touch-screen docking systems found in cities such as Boston and New York -- makes installation of new stations easy and fast.

A bike-share feasibility study by Cleveland's Office of Sustainability found that Cleveland could support a system of 770 to 1,400 rental bikes based at between 77 and 140 stations in five neighborhoods.

Cleveland said early this year it plans to more than double the amount of bike-friendly routes in town, adding 70 miles of dedicated lanes, trails and pavement markings by the end of 2017.

It costs $3 an hour to rent one of the Breezers, with a cap at $24 for up to 24 hours. A $15 monthly or $75 annual fee includes unlimited rides under one hour, with additional hours being charged at $3 an hour to the maximum $24.

Bikes can be taken one way or round trip, but must be returned to a Zagster bike location. A map of locations is available online at www.zagster.com/Cleveland.