The Denver B-Cycle program — hailed as a progressive and green way to get people out of their cars and onto bikes — now is being criticized as an elite folly that has ignored poor and minority residents.

The City Council votes Monday on whether to expand the popular program — adding 27 stations around Denver that officials hope will boost ridership by 212 percent.

But one councilman is disappointed that stations aren’t going into poor or minority neighborhoods.

Councilman Paul Lopez, who represents a mostly Latino district in southwest Denver, has been the lone vote against the expansion, saying the 2-year-old bike-sharing program should be for everyone.

“This shouldn’t be just for people who can afford it,” Lopez said. “It’s truly sad that just one (of the stations) is in west Denver. That truly says something.”

Program officials said they must put stations where they can get the most ridership, and in some cases cultural barriers prevent some people from hopping onto the B-Cycle’s red-framed bikes with the big white baskets.

Denver B-Cycle was the country’s first large-scale municipal bike-sharing initiative when a coalition working on planning for the 2008 Democratic National Convention provided 1,000 bikes to be shared. The DNC host committee provided $1 million to start a bike-sharing program.

The program is intended for short rides and requires a one-time paid membership that can range from $8 for 24 hours to $80 for a year. Riders get the first 30 minutes per ride free, after which they are charged.

Currently, the program has 53 stations around the downtown core, with 530 bikes that have provided 466,386 rides.

Denver B-Cycle information presented to the City Council claims that riders have burned more than 28 million calories, shed 8,195 pounds of fat and saved more than 68,000 gallons of gasoline through pedal power.

The proposed new stations — paid for with $1.1 million in federal and state grants and matching money — would grow out of the city’s core, expanding into densely populated neighborhoods and business districts, and near bus and light-rail stops.

Only one new station would be west of Federal Boulevard, and none would be east of Colorado Boulevard or north of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Lopez said the stations are needed in areas that are the least healthy in the city. His district has a high rate of obesity and diabetes, and he said residents should be given every type of encouragement to exercise.

“If it is truly about behavioral change, make it available where it is really needed or where it will have impact,” he said. “Is this truly, truly about the issues and behavioral change or is this just for looks?”

Bike sharing, which began in Amsterdam in the 1960s, took off in the United States only recently.

Now, about two dozen North American cities have bike-sharing programs, with at least four dozen in planning stages, including Portland, Ore.; Chicago; and Seattle.

Yet, throughout the U.S., the programs have struggled to appeal to minorities, as riders are mostly middle-income whites.

In Washington, D.C., membership is 81 percent white. In Boston, 1 percent of riders are black and 3 percent Latino. And a survey of Denver’s riders found 89 percent were white, with 21 percent from households with annual income of less than $50,000.

“We have a lot of work to do to reach a broader segment of Denver, but we need to do it in a way that makes business sense,” said Parry Burnap, executive director of Denver Bike Sharing, the nonprofit that runs B-Cycle.

Burnap said stations work best if they are in densely populated areas with mixed land uses and near transit areas with safe bike paths.

The stations generally are clustered around one another, making it easier for people to access through their short rides and less costly to maintain. Bikes must be transported to restock stations that riders have already used.

“We run the system through membership and sponsorship,” Burnap said. “If we hang a station out there that is not strategically connected, we have to hire people to maintain it.”

Burnap said she is aware the system must strive to target specific groups for more inclusion.

The organization received a $25,000 grant from LiveWell Colorado and the Denver Housing Authority to increase membership in low-income areas. Last year, the group provided 100 subsidized memberships for residents in a Five Points housing project. But only 32 people took advantage of the memberships and only 23 people rode the bikes more than once that year.

The organization hired a firm to survey the residents to find out what happened, learning that some people didn’t feel comfortable riding bikes on streets and others said they couldn’t figure out how to fit the bikes into their lifestyle.

“Then there is also building some coolness around using the bikes,” Burnap said. “I don’t know how to do that. I really don’t.”

Councilman Albus Brooks, whose district includes Five Points, said he recently toured his district with some young people and heard their dismissal of the B-Cycle program.

“They said, ‘Why in the world would I pay for a bike when I can borrow my cousin’s?’ And ‘That bike is ugly,’ ” Brooks said in a recent council meeting.

“I have been upset that (the stations) haven’t been going out to Cole and Whittier,” he said. “Even if we would have these sites, would we have the ridership? It’s a cultural difference. There are a lot of folks who don’t know anything about this. This is a cultural chasm in our neighborhood.”

The stations included in the expansion have already been determined, but Burnap hopes to continue to expand the system into Lopez’s district and throughout Denver in two years. She also wants to continue educating the public on the benefits of bike riding.

This year, the program has had more success, registering 96 participants at the Mariposa House, a shelter for homeless women. Forty members have been active participants. This week, Burnap and others will host an event at the shelter, offering more memberships and free bike helmets.

They will go on a bike ride to point out the stations and give safety tips in hopes of getting regular riders.

“We want to be accessible by all,” Burnap said. “If we aren’t being ridden by a cross-section of the community, we are not doing our job. And we are not.”

Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367, jpmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jpmeyerdpost