OAKLAND — As Oaklanders continue to use blue Ford GoBikes to zip across town, East Bay city officials are working with the program’s operator to expand it to reach its full potential.

More than 120 docking stations — where people can rent the bikes as well as drop them off — were planned to be installed in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville by the start of 2018. But according to Ford GoBike’s website, close to 40 are yet to be installed.

Related Articles ‘Bike share’ program launches in Alameda Most of the yet-to-be-installed docking stations are in Berkeley. Oakland Department of Transportation director Ryan Russo told the Oakland Tribune that the city is about 90 percent done with its rollout of the docking stations — with more to be installed in the Jack London Square and Fruitvale areas. But without all of the docking stations in the Easy Bay in place, the program is not as beneficial, Russo said.

“For it to really work, if you’re going to grab a bike in one place, you should be able to dock it where you’re going,” Russo said. “If the system isn’t full, it’s not going to reach its full potential.”

Like the Oakland Tribune Facebook page for more conversation and news coverage from Oakland and beyond.

GoBike users can pick up a bicycle and drop it off at any station throughout the system. They can either sign up for annual memberships or pay through a mobile app or at the docking station.

While Oakland officials try to get the city’s last docking stations built, some residents have complained after being unpleasantly surprised by their appearance in the Rockridge neighborhood. Some criticized the program and its operator, Motivate, for not including them in the planning process.

“I think it’s very inconsiderate that they didn’t really ask the neighbors if they could put them here in the first place. It’s taking up a lot of parking spaces,” said 19-year-old Jae Scott, who lives near a docking station installed in October on Shafter Avenue and Cavour Street.

Oakland resident Sam Cohen said he was confused to see the docking station on Shafter and Cavour, since the residential neighborhood is not close to stores or businesses.

“I’m not really sure who they’re trying to serve,” Cohen said.

Signs posted at the docking station urged Motivate and city officials to move it somewhere else.

“Neighbors here support the concept of bike share. We just want this commercial rental station, 5200 Shafter, to be relocated from our all residential street to a more appropriate mixed-use street like the other stations,” one of the signs read.

Another called the docking station a “commercial intrusion with its billboard and rental pay kiosk in an area clearly zoned residential.”

Russo said there was a “robust process” to plan where the docking stations would go, which involved neighbors. The people who lived next to the Shafter and Cavour docking station were at some of the community meetings, Russo said.

“No process is perfect, I would say, and we will certainly learn from the feedback we’ve gotten,” Russo said. “It’s important to remember that this isn’t a 20-story apartment building or a new liquor store or factory coming in; these are bicycles. There’s no capital investment, there is the opportunity to evaluate and make adjustments as the program goes forward, so I think the process that we had is appropriate for what we’re doing.”

In regards to neighbors’ complaint that the docking station takes up parking spaces on a street lacking them, Russo said the program is intended to ultimately create more spaces.

“I think it’s really important that we give people a multitude of transportation options, that we have sustainable options so folks don’t need a second car or a car at all,” Russo said.

But unless all of the docking stations are built, those benefits won’t be fully available, Russo said.

Stay up to date on East Bay news by downloading our mobile app for free. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store.

Russo said he believes the bike share program, and other alternative transportation programs, could stand to aid in more than just reducing cars on the street.

“We have to connect it to what we really want to accomplish; it’s not just about transportation or automobiles,” Russo said. “We have an affordable housing and homelessness crisis in the region, and one of the ways to do that is to be more dense, to have more apartment buildings and having people live more densely. We have done an incredible job in this region to affordably house our automobiles; we need to affordably house our people. When you have efficient transportation options like the bike share and mass transit, then you don’t need 2.5 parking spaces per apartment and we can actually make some progress on that housing crisis.”