Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • October 1, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com FOCUS: Transportation/Construction Hartford embraces LimeBikes as urban-transportation option By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com D arin Rees would love to see the streets of Hartford turn green. He's the Hartford operations manager for Lime, the San Mateo, Calif.-based bikeshare company that has put 400 of its lime-green bicycles known as LimeBikes on the city's roadways since it officially arrived here June 6. Hartford denizens' seeming em- brace of the short-term rental bikes eclipsed the company's expectations, Rees said, with nearly 40,000 rides re- corded during the first three months. And while many riders in the first few weeks appeared to be using them for fun, Rees said the bikes are appealing to a more sustainable group: business professionals and other laborers. "My team and I are noticing that a lot more people are riding them to work," Rees said. "As far as a trans- portation (source) … whether it be the grocery store, or to work, I think it's only going to grow." In June, Hartford became the sec- ond New England city — after Mal- den, Mass. — with an active LimeBike program, Rees said. Since then, about six other communities surrounding Boston joined the ranks of approxi- mately 60 communities that have embraced the company, which the Wall Street Journal reported in June to have a $1-billion valuation. Rees declined to say how much rev- enue Lime has recorded in Hartford so far, but it charges $1 per half-hour ride for most customers. The two-year pilot program in Hartford originally called for 300 bikes, but 100 were added in late June due to popular demand. Heading to a meeting Anthony Cherolis, who heads BiCi Co. @ Center for Latino Progress, which provides programs encourag- ing safe cycling in Hartford, said he recently rode a LimeBike to a meeting in downtown Hartford, a type of use he thinks will grow in the city. "They're super quick to check out, and hop on and ride," Cherolis said. At the moment, the bikes are prob- ably best used as a convenience, Cher- olis said. For somebody who depends on bicycle access for everyday trans- portation, 400 bikes aren't enough to be confident one will be nearby at any given time. But someone who was Zipcar once again testing the waters in downtown Hartford By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com T here's renewed energy behind a years-long effort to bring short-term car rental service Zipcar to downtown Hartford. At a meeting in August between officials from Zipcar and local stakeholders, representatives of multiple downtown apartment complexes — including Spectra and 777 Main — offered free parking spaces at their buildings for Zipcars, according to several people who attended the meeting. The center city has been trying to recruit Zipcar for years. In 2015, it was reported that the car-sharing service, which is seen as another transit option that could help the city become less car dependant, was ready to expand downtown, but it never happened. The need, and potentially de- mand, is greater now than it was even a few years ago, supporters say, because the city has added two new major mass-transit op- tions — the CT- fastrak busway and Hartford rail line — and hundreds of new residents downtown. "In Hartford, I've been lobbying and seeing (Zipcar) as a need and an amenity for quite some time," said Anthony Ch- erolis, program manager at the Center for Latino Progress, who oversees the Hartford nonprofit's Transport Hart- ford Academy, which aims to create an active group of informed residents who will shape future transportation developments in the region. "Exist- ing residents are already a bright market for a car- share type oppor- tunity and … those who are moving here into these redeveloped build- ings downtown, and are students going to school at UConn, I think that's their other … possible market." A Zipcar official said in an email that the company has no specific Growing Hartford's ride-sharing economy What is Zipcar? Zipcar provides over 1 million mem- bers on-demand access to more than 12,000 vehicles in over 500 cities and towns and over 600 college campuses. Zipcar's fleet includes over 60 dif- ferent makes and models, including: hybrids, SUVs, pickup trucks, luxury vehicles, minivans and cargo vans. Zipcar riders use a mobile app to find and reserve cars. Membership costs $70 per year or $7 per month and hourly rates start at just $7.50 per hour and $69 per day. Darrin Rees, Lime's Hartford operations manager, says customers in Hartford have taken nearly 40,000 trips on the ride-sharing company's bikes since June. HBJ PHOTO | SEAN TEEHAN Continued on Page 10 >> Continued on Page 10 >> PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Downtown Hartford landlords, businesses and others are trying to recruit Zipcar.

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