Scottsdale may become the fourth Valley city to adopt a bike-share program.

Unlike other cities that have light-rail stops to complement bicycle rentals, Scottsdale elected leaders have long opposed light rail.

Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa all have contracts with Grid Bike Share and each have bike stations close to light-rail stops. Commuters can rent a bike in one city, hop on light rail to another city and return the bike there.

Scottsdale would bank on tourists for the program's success.

Paul Basha, Scottsdale transportation director, said city leaders have wanted a bike-share program since 2014. They're waiting to move forward until construction connecting popular bike trails from the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt to downtown Scottsdale is scheduled, he said.

Possible locations

Among the possible locations for bike stations are:

SkySong.

The area surrounding McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

Downtown Scottsdale.

The Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt.

Scottsdale's reputation as a tourist destination and its expanding downtown make bike-sharing increasingly attractive, Economic Development Director Danielle Casey said.

No light rail, but plenty of resort guests

Scottsdale's long-standing opposition to light rail could pose some challenges to bike sharing, but the tourists staying at Scottsdale's hotels would more than make up for it, Casey said.

"We are different in that we don’t have the light rail, but we also have a huge number of visitors coming to our resorts and our downtown," she said.

MORE:Scottsdale's best biking paths

Basha said destinations such as bike-friendly trails in the preserve could double as attractions for customers using a bike-share program.

"Already, hotels are providing bikes to their guests in Scottsdale," he said. "We’re exploring bike share for the preserve and other places with gravel trails."

Users would be able to bike to through the preserve's trails, but Basha said they wouldn't have stations in the preserve.

Stephanie Pressler, Experience Scottsdale community affairs manager, said tourist destinations across the U.S. are adopting bike-sharing systems.

"We think it would be a fantastic amenity for anyone visiting Scottsdale and it's used by cities that compete with Scottsdale for tourism," she said. "There's a demand for active leisure travel."

While many tourist cities have light rail and bike-share programs to make it easy for visitors to get around, it's not a prerequisite. Cities such as San Antonio, Boulder, Colorado, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, have bike-share programs, but no light rail.

Bike-sharing options

Scottsdale is considering using companies such as Grid Bike Share or LimeBike.

LimeBike doesn't use bike stations, instead allowing users to lock bikes anywhere after they're done riding, Basha said. Grid lets users lock the bikes at a designated station or a regular bike rack for an additional fee.

"Not everybody is as conscientious as my mom taught me to be. Some people park their bikes in the wrong spot, so you have to recognize that," Basha said. "We’re leaning more toward a product that has both stations and non-stations."

Who pays for it?

Phoenix was the first city in the Valley to adopt a bike-sharing program. When it launched in 2014, Grid's vendor gave the city 250 bikes for free to pilot the program, a Phoenix spokesperson said.

The city announced in April that it will add 200 bikes this fall. It obtained about $778,000 in a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant, and will pay about $47,000 in city funds for the expansion, according to city documents.

When Tempe implemented bike sharing last year, it partially funded the program through a transit tax and ongoing annual contributions from Arizona State University. City officials used the Tempe Transit Tax to for a one-time payment of $373,000 and the city agreed to pay $50,000 annually.

Mesa also implemented 100 Grid bikes in 2016 and signed a five-year contract with Grid. The city made a one-time, $200,000 payment for the program and doesn't have to make any annual payments, special projects manager Niel Curley said.

Curley said city staff are working on a report to gather numbers on how the program fared in its first year. He said he anticipates the report will show the Grid bikes have been successful.

"One of our strategies is that we have stations at light rail stops so residents of all three cities (with Grid bikes) can pick up a bike, take the light rail and return it at another city's station," he said.

Basha said city officials haven't narrowed down how to pay for the possible program. They are looking at using hotel bed tax, transportation tax, advertising, or a combination of those, he said.

"We are exploring all sorts of possibilities. Like many of these programs, there’s more ways to do it wrong than to do it right," Basha said. "Once upon a time, our trolleys were sponsored. Those are all possibilities."

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