Hamilton's Bike Share program has tacked some Mountain stations onto its list.

Initially, the city had planned to launch stations in the lower city and then wait for more funding to set up stations on the Mountain, said Sean Burak, operations manager for the nonprofit program.

However, "we just got a lot of feedback from residents that they wanted this on the Mountain," he said.

Hamilton Bike Share (hamilton.socialbicycles.com/) is an initiative that came out of a Metrolinx project to offer "quick wins" for municipalities in 2008.

Hamilton received $1.6 million to start a bike-share program, eventually awarding the contract to Social Bicycles, a New York firm, to buy 750 trackable bikes and have them available on a subscription basis (about $84 a year) from about 108 stations around the city.

Burak said so far, the city has received about 500 of the bikes, and the process of selecting station sites is nearing completion.

"The most important element for a bike station is to have stations closer together.

"If you are spread out too far, it's not very useful," he said. "It's supposed to complement buses . a feeder system."

The organization is also looking for sponsors to pay for stations. McMaster University has just agreed to have three additional stations, bringing the number there to six, and the International Village and Downtown Hamilton BIA are also sponsoring.

Next week Burak plans to talk to the Concession Street BIA about a station there.

The four newly announced sites are at Fennell and West 5th, the top of the Wentworth staircase (on the Mountain), on or near Concession Street close to Juravinski Hospital, and at Mountain Drive Park.

For an interactive map of the proposed station sites, see https://a.tiles.mapbox.com /

The city had hoped to have the program ready for the summer, but Burak said staff didn't issue the purchase order until April, delaying the production of the bikes and the stations.

The bikes will be equipped with GPS and other software to track the bikes and to collect data on usage patterns. That way, the system can be tweaked by adding or subtracting bike racks and the data will bring a better understanding of how and where the public will use the bikes.

It's hoped the bike-share program will be running by the fall, pending a deal reached with a wireless phone carrier.

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Burak said the program will be operated year-round, although likely on a reduced basis throughout the winter months, much like a similar program in Saint Paul, Minn.

"That model is very similar to ours with a nonprofit agency running a program and they went from 750 bikes in four years to 1,500. It's an exciting time in Hamilton with all of these transportation choices."