Healthy Ride is operated by Pittsburgh Bike Share. We are a small 501(c)3 non-profit located in the Strip District. Pittsburgh Bike Share constantly seeks feedback on the system through our customer service channels and community outreach. We hope to expand the Healthy Ride system in order to serve additional Pittsburgh communities as well as install additional stations within our current network in order to make Healthy Ride convenient for all of our customers.

Mission and Values

The mission of Bike Share Pittsburgh Inc (dba Healthy Ride) is to provide Pittsburgh with a joyful, sustainable, and affordable mobility service for all residents and visitors. 

Availability & Connectivity

Bike Share Pittsburgh is dedicated to creating and expanding  connections  throughout Pittsburgh using an intuitive bikeshare system. We also encourage and support bike and pedestrian infrastructure initiatives that increase public connectivity throughout Pittsburgh.

Community Engagement

As a proud member of the Pittsburgh community, Bike Share Pittsburgh is devoted to playing an active, thoughtful role as a community partner and public resource. We hope to engage the city’s residents, visitors, and students in open dialogue about bikeshare and how we as an organization can grow to meet the needs of those we serve. Bike Share Pittsburgh is further committed to supporting city infrastructure and initiatives that make biking and walking an enjoyable means of mobility in our city.

Equity & Inclusivity

Bike Share Pittsburgh is dedicated to working with BIPOC communities and low-income neighborhoods to better connect residents to the bikeshare system through inclusive pricing models, station locations, partnerships, and public engagement. Bike Share Pittsburgh is also dedicated to ensuring our organization is a fun, inclusive place to work, and that our staff and board are reflective of all of the communities that bikeshare serves.

Remarkable Customer Experience

With a commitment to industry-leading customer experience, Bike Share Pittsburgh is obsessive about providing a high-quality bikeshare service that is reliable, safe, enjoyable, and easy-to-use. We strive to make our customers confident in our service, secure in sharing their information, and elated in their experience.

Sustainability & Community Health

Bikeshare helps to address urban challenges by reducing traffic congestion and carbon emissions, improving air quality, reducing vehicular collisions, improving public health and fitness, and reducing the overall cost of street maintenance. Bike Share Pittsburgh  is a valuable component of making Pittsburgh a more livable, diverse, and healthy city.

Goals

Pittsburgh Bike Share is dedicated to creating a ubiquitous active transportation network that positions human powered transportation as an integral part of the larger public transit system in the city of Pittsburgh.

Station Density
Pittsburgh Bike Share is dedicated to improving service within pre-existing bike-sharing communities in order to make the system more convenient for riders. Through robust community engagement we will locate additional stations in existing neighborhoods to increase access and use of the system.

System Expansion
Pittsburgh Bike Share is dedicated to reaching more people and expanding public cycling opportunities by extending its network into new neighborhoods throughout the city. In order to continue connecting individuals, businesses, and communities, we aim to expand the established bike-sharing network.

Ridership
Through both station density and system expansion, Pittsburgh Bike Share hopes to both enlist new riders and increase use among registered users. Our community outreach efforts will focus on establishing ways to reach more individuals in need of alternative transportation as well as incorporating ongoing feedback to improve the system for current and potential users.

Bike-Sharing & Cycling Education
An integral part of any bike share system is creating knowledgeable, prepared, and capable riders. Through community outreach, Pittsburgh Bike Share prepares current and potential bike share users for the road ahead. Community outreach events include information on bike safety, bike share system use, and city navigation in order to provide bike share riders with a comprehensive knowledge of the benefits and challenges of cycling in Pittsburgh. These events are arranged for community groups, bike and pedestrian committees, non-profit organizations, businesses, and organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Outreach
Through direct community engagement, Pittsburgh Bike Share hopes to engage the public in any and all system expansion and neighborhood density discussions. Through these discussions, a primary directive is to tackle physical and financial barriers to the system in order to reach those in need of increased public transportation options.

Annual Reports

 
Take a look at our annual reports to see all that Healthy Ride and our riders have achieved over the years!

• 2019 Annual Report
• 2020 Annual Report

Brief History

Bike Share Pittsburgh, Inc. (dba Pittsburgh Bike Share) is a charitable organization founded in December 2012 and incubated by Bike Pittsburgh. The organization was created due to mounting interest in implementing a municipal bike share system in Pittsburgh from a collection of local leaders: planners at the City of Pittsburgh, business leaders at Walnut Capital, and bicycle/pedestrian advocates at Bike Pittsburgh.

In 2013 Bike Pittsburgh raised capital from local foundations and donors to support a match a $1.6 million Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality improvement (CMAQ) grant from the Federal Highway Administration. This fundraising campaign covered planning and capital costs of equipment purchase for Pittsburgh’s bike share project. Bike Pittsburgh, working alongside leaders at the Department of City Planning, and Alta Planning + Design to developed a business plan. The City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning, and other partners, conducted a thorough community outreach and planning operation and completed the business plan in 2013.

In 2014, the City advertised a bid for bike share procurement and system installation. The bid was awarded to S.E.T., an Ohio based general contractor, partnering with Nextbike, a German company then with over 20,000 bicycles deployed in bike-share systems worldwide, to provide the system equipment, including GPS enabled bicycles, solar powered kiosks and docking stations, and software, to operate the system. As mandated by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the CMAQ grant requirement, the City of Pittsburgh contracted with a federally certified project management team, CDR Maguire, to manage the implementation.

Bike Share Pittsburgh launched the Healthy Ride system on May 31, 2015. The staff and partners continued installing stations throughout summer of 2015 reaching 50 stations and operating 500 bicycles. Pittsburgh residents embraced bike share and found ways to make short bicycle trips a part of their everyday routines. Although ridership is greatest during the warmer temperatures in spring and summer, Healthy Ride bikes and stations are modified, but fully operational, in colder months to provide a reliable bicycle option all year long. Popular station locations for both rentals and returns are Market Square, Southside Works, the Northside Trail, and stations in the Strip District.

In late 2017 Bike Share Pittsburgh piloted one of the first-of-its-kind partnerships with the local transit agency, the Port Authority of Allegheny County. All Port Authority Connect Card pass holders received an unlimited number of short, fifteen minute trips, for free, simply by linking their accounts to Healthy Ride and tapping the Connect Card on a bicycle. During the one-year pilot in 2018, nearly one of every four trips recorded on Healthy Ride were attributed to Connect Card users.

The first Healthy Ride expansion rolled out in summer 2018 with funding from the the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, Multimodal Transportation Fund. That $200,000 grant, combined again with generous support from Pittsburgh’s foundation community allowed Bike Share Pittsburgh to purchase new equipment and to reconfigure existing stations to reach 100 stations by the end of 2018.

About the Title Sponsors

Highmark Inc., which does business as Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in western and northeastern Pennsylvania, is part of the Highmark Health enterprise, a diversified health and wellness system headquartered in Pittsburgh. Highmark Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates collectively comprise the fourth-largest Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliated organization and operate health plans in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware.

Allegheny Health Network, part of Highmark Health, is an integrated healthcare delivery system serving the Western Pennsylvania region. The Network is comprised of eight hospitals, including its flagship academic medical center Allegheny General Hospital, Allegheny Valley Hospital, Canonsburg Hospital, Forbes Hospital, Jefferson Hospital, Saint Vincent Hospital, Westfield Memorial Hospital and West Penn Hospital;  a research institute; Health + Wellness Pavilions; an employed physician organization, home- and community-based health services and a group purchasing organization. The Network employs approximately 17,000 people and has more than 2,800 physicians on its medical staff. The Network also serves as a clinical campus for Temple University School of Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine and the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

About the Initial Funding

Pittsburgh Bike Share launched the Healthy Ride system through the funding efforts of local foundations, through the assistance from a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) grant from the Federal Highway Administration, and through support from our advertising sponsors. The following foundations have been instrumental:

About the Bikes and Stations

The Healthy Ride hardware and software is provided by nextbike, a global player in the bike share industry based in Leipzig, Germany. Nextbike provides and/or operates bike share systems in over 120 cities worldwide and has partnered with Pittsburgh Bike Share to launch the first nextbike system here in the US. With their years of experience in the industry, nextbike provides supplemental phone support for the Healthy Ride system during off-peak hours.