The Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) has selected four new “Living Labs” to receive $200,000 US each over the next two and a half years. The “Living Labs” will work with the Philadelphia – the original “Living Lab” city – to test and refine strategies to eliminate barriers to shared micro mobility.
The four awardees include:
- Bikes for Belmont Cragin, Chicago IL – will work with neighborhood teenagers to create a community education campaign that focuses on accessing various transit modes via bikes. The local youth leadership council will also learn skills related to bike mechanics and handling;
- Building the Bike-to-Bus Connection, Detroit MI – MoGo, a local nonprofit group, will work with partners to identify barriers associated with bus and bike-share trips;
- PDX Prescribe-a-Bike, Portland, OR – The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and a local initiative, the Multnomah County REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) Program, will aid local health workers who provide the city’s bike-share service to clients who receive county health assistance; and
- Red Bike Go, Cincinnati, OH – The city’s bike-share program, Red Bike, is expanding its Red Bike Go program to two new neighborhoods and will form partnerships with schools and community-based groups, youth ambassadors, and youth-centric programming.
“Being a Living Lab means taking a deep dive into addressing the obstacles that affect access to and use of shared micro mobility systems,” Tangier Barnes Wright, partnership and program manager at the PeopleForBikes Foundation, said in a statement. “At the end of two and a half years, the Living Labs communities will share unique and replicable approaches to achieving equity in shared micro mobility that can be utilized nationwide.”
The Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) is made up of the City of Philadelphia, the National Association of City and Transportation Officials (NACTO), and the PeopleForBikes Foundation.