Ann Arbor has several bike stations around the city as part of an bike-share program.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The city by 2017 should launch a bike-share program that could cost as much as $2 million to get up and running, a parking consultant recommends.

More city parking ramps will be needed - especially south of Van Andel Arena - as existing lots get redeveloped, said Mark de la Vergne, director of transportation planning for Sam Schwartz Engineering in Chicago. But Grand Rapids also must try to change from a city where people have to drive to one with a variety of viable transportation options, he said.

Hence, de la Vergne's recommendation of a bike-share program with 20 to 35 downtown stations and some bicycles with electric propulsion. Estimated startup cost: $500,000 to $2 million.

"Bike share is essentially a pedestrian accelerator that allows people to cover a larger walkshed in a shorter amount of time," the consultant wrote in a report given Thursday, June 11, to the city's parking commission. "For instance, the walk from DeVos Place to Founders (Brewing Co.) is about 16 minutes for the average person; using bike share that trip would be reduced to 6 minutes."

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Bike-share programs rolling out across Michigan

Ann Arbor rolled out a bike-share program last fall, and there are other models across Michigan. In Ann Arbor, subscribers pay $65 a year, or $10 for a monthly pass or $6 for a day pass. They can swipe a card to access a bike from any one of 13 bike stations.

Federal, city and university funds are paying most of the estimated $1.5 million, 3-year cost for the ArborBike program.

Grand Rapids should study bike-share models and where to put bike stations, de la Vergne said.

Other recommendations:

• launch a 10-vehicle car-share program later this year in partnership with a private vendor

• reconfigure the Downtown Area Shuttle, or DASH, system into two routes - a Green Line and an Orange Line - that make it easier for people to move around downtown without a car

• replace ordinances that require new developments to provide a certain amount of parking with requirements for bike stations and bike parking and services like shuttle buses and bus passes

• for a 1-year trial, give free bus passes to five businesses and one university

• urge downtown employers that pay for parking to give employees the cash and let them decide whether to pay for parking or commute some other way

"We're talking with all the staff about mobility options and a few people have jumped on already," said parking commissioner Marcia Rapp, who is vice president of programs for the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, which has an office south of Van Andel Arena where public parking is crammed.

"They walk farther or they take the transit or bike. Some people are figuring it out themselves and they're happy."

Rapp said she gets $40 a month in lieu of an employer-paid parking space.

RELATED: $50 rate increases, some price cuts advised for downtown parking lots

The consultant also recommends that Grand Rapids increase parking rates in crowded lots - some by as much as $51 per month - and decrease rates in some less-crowded ramps. The price to park at on-street meters also should increase, to $2 per hour, and meters should be enforced on Saturdays and until 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, de la Vergne said.

Rate increases would be highest in lots south of Van Andel Arena where parking is underpriced, de la Vergne said.

In addition to "a strong emphasis...on reducing the existing parking demand" south of Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids will have to add parking ramps in the future, the consultant said.

"We're not doing a war on cars," de la Vergne said. "Parking supply is going to be part of our answer here.

"I don't think we're ever going to have less people parking downtown."

Matt Vande Bunte covers government for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at mvandebu@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.