The Bluegrass and Beyond

Lexington’s Yellow Bike program, which allows people to borrow bicycles for short trips around downtown, is beginning its third year.

The idea is to provide fun, quick transportation for short trips, improve health and reduce automobile traffic and parking hassles. The program was started and is funded by downtown businesses.

Two years ago, a similar program on a grander scale was launched in Paris (France, not Kentucky).  Now, London (England, not Kentucky) has announced a similar plan, also on a grand scale, with 6,000 bikes to be placed at stations all over the city. Plans call for the system to be up and running by next year.

“Much like hailing a cab, people will be able to pick up one of 6,000 bikes, and zip around town to their heart’s content – not only a quick, easy, and healthy option, but one that will also make London a more liveable city,” Mayor Boris Johnson told The Guardian newspaper.

Many people at the University of Kentucky were surprised — and not especially pleased — when officials Tuesday announced a new $15 fee and registration program for bicycles parked on campus.

With student tuition rising and employee pay stagnant — not to mention all of those millions going to the new basketball coach — it seems like an odd time to be adding another fee, even if it is a small, one-time assessment that wouldn’t take effect until 2010.

Besides, if you’re wanting to encourage bicycling as an alternative form of transportation, is it a good idea to start charging for it?

After a couple of articles in the Kentucky Kernel student newspaper, officials might be reconsidering the fee. But the rest of the program seems like a good idea, for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s another sign that UK is taking bicycles seriously.

The plan would require bikes parked on campus to be registered and bear a sticker, beginning in July. The sticker would help with recovery of lost or stolen bikes and make it easier for bicycle owners to get insurance.

Money from the fee would be earmarked for upkeep of bicycle racks and, more importantly, bicycle education.

Whether or not the fee remains — and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it scrapped — UK officials should press forward with the education piece. I see a lot of students riding bicycles around campus who don’t seem to know the rules of the road or some basic safety practices. It’s dangerous for the cyclists, and it just makes drivers angry.

Yellow bikes update

Yellow bikes will begin reappearing on Lexington streets later this month. It’s the third year for the program that provides free loaner bicycles for short trips around downtown.

But the program, which was started by private donors and administered by the Downtown Lexington Corp., could be much better next year.

The city will find out this fall whether it will get a $206,000 federal grant to provide high-tech bike racks and other support for the yellow bike program. The grant would need to be matched by $51,500 in local funding, probably private, in-kind contributions.

“If we get that support, we’ll be able to do a world-class shared bike program,” said Phil Holoubek, a downtown developer who helped start the yellow bike program.

That would include 12 to 15 solar-powered racks where bicycles could be borrowed with the swipe of a credit card and returned to another rack at the end of a ride. The racks would be concentrated downtown, around the UK and Transylvania University campuses and at the Kentucky Horse Park at the end of the Legacy Trail, which is now under construction between downtown and the park, said Kenzie Gleason, the city’s bikeway/pedestrian coordinator.

The rack vendor would be chosen by competitive bidding. But one major player in the business is Bcycle (bicycle with no “i”), a three-company partnership that includes Louisville-based Humana. To see how its racks work, go to Bcycle’s Web site.

But this year, like last year, about 60 yellow bikes will be available for checkout from several downtown locations, mostly retailers, and must be returned to the same location, preferably on the same day. Yellow bikes will be out through October.

There’s a $10 one-time fee to join the program, and people who have signed up before don’t need to re-register.

Bike Lexington plans

The annual Bike Lexington event has been moved from the third Saturday in May to Memorial Day, May 25, to better coordinate with the Bluegrass Cycling Club’s annual Horsey Hundred ride that Saturday and Sunday.

The Horsey Hundred attracts nearly 2,000 cyclists — many of whom come from as far away as Florida and Michigan — to the countryside around Lexington, Georgetown and Versailles.

The event is based at Georgetown College, but Gleason said shuttle buses will bring riders into Lexington that Saturday evening for food and a live band at Cheapside. “Lexington wanted to bring them into town and show them a good time,” she said.

Bike Lexington on Monday will be at the Courthouse Plaza at Main Street and Limestone and will include a 10-mile family fun ride and other activities for cyclists, walkers and families.

More information on Bike Lexington will be available next week at www.bikelexington.com. For information about the Horsey Hundred, go to www.bgcycling.org.

In other bicycle news: Mayor Jim Newberry and the Mayor’s Bicycle Task Force will have a Community Bike Forum on Tuesday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m. at a location still to be determined. The public forum will include updates on various bicycle-related activities and organizations around town.

“We’re hoping people will come, find out what is happening in Lexington and tell us what they would like to see,” Gleason said.

Also, people interested in bicycle commuting can attend free seminars at the Courthouse Plaza on three Wednesday nights next month — May 6, 13 and 27 — from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The seminars, conducted by trainers certified by the League of American Bicyclists, will cover such commuting basics as how to change a flat tire, and choosing the right bike, clothing and route.

Christopher Rowe is passionate about bikes. Most recently, yellow bikes.

Get up early this summer and you will see him on the streets of downtown Lexington, pedaling an old blue bicycle rigged with a rack made of plastic pipe so he can tow one or two yellow bikes behind him.

Rowe is wrangler-in-chief for Lexington’s Yellow Bike program, which will begin its second year next week. About five dozen bikes will be rolled out from winter storage and put back on downtown streets for public use.

Last year, yellow bikes were placed throughout downtown, available to anyone who paid $10 for a key to the cable locks that secured them. The idea was for keyholders to ride a bike downtown and then lock it up for the next person.

When the program began, critics predicted the bikes would all be stolen within weeks. But Rowe said fewer than 20 of the 80 bikes were lost or destroyed.

“We had the highest percentage of retention of any program we’ve ever heard of,” he said. “There are still a few floating around. I just recovered one the other day.”

Christopher Rowe, shown last October, used a bicycle to tow Yellow Bikes to new locations and take them off to repair. Photos/Tom Eblen

New bike rules

New rules will make the bikes more secure, but a little less convenient to borrow.

People who pay $10 (or who paid last year) will get an ID card they can use to borrow a bike at one of at least five downtown locations. Bikes will come with sturdy “U” locks to secure them when they’re not being ridden, and they must be returned within three hours.

The time limit is designed to keep Yellow Bikes from wandering beyond downtown. “But if you can pedal to Paris and back in three hours, go for it,” Rowe said.

To get an ID card, Yellow Bike members must give a credit card number to guarantee the $300 replacement cost if they lose a bike in their care. The Yellow Bike program will begin issuing ID cards Saturday.

Rowe, an Adair County native who has lived in Lexington since 2002, took the part-time wrangler’s job last year because he loved the idea of getting paid to ride his bike around town every day. He fixed flat tires and mechanical problems, moved bikes to where they were needed and rounded up strays.

When not on his bike, Rowe, 38, edits Kentucky Epidemiological Notes and Reports and writes fantasy and science-fiction stories. Author Stephen King, who edited the 2007 edition of Best American Short Stories, chose one of Rowe’s stories as among the nation’s 100 best last year.

Rowe is a big believer in the Yellow Bike program, which receives no government funding but is supported by the Downtown Lexington Corp., several developers and other sponsors.

To Rowe, cycling is more than a form of transportation: It’s a political statement.

“It’s good for the rider, good for the environment and good for the community, too,” he said.

Rowe said he watched people of all ages and walks of life use the yellow bikes last year. One evening during Gallery Hop, he saw a lady wearing a little black dress and heels pedaling one down Main Street.

Last year’s casualties

The Atlas utility bikes were designed for running errands in factories. They’re rugged and easy to ride — single speed, coaster brakes, fat tires for stability. But they have their limits.

A few, which he now refers to as “carcass bikes,” were found in such bad shape that they were good only for spare parts. Somebody gave one bike a new paint job — Wildcat blue. Another bike was found personalized in a south Lexington neighborhood.

“Some kid had written his name all over it in magic marker,” Rowe said. “I don’t think he’s going to be a very effective bike thief.”

Rowe said he spent much of his time last year searching for wayward bikes. They frequently ended up near the University of Kentucky campus — and as far away as Nicholasville.

A surprising number of missing bikes were found because of tips to the Yellow Bike Hotline — (859) 425-2008.

“One thing I’ve learned in terms of sociology reminds me of the legendary Old West attitude toward horse thieves,” Rowe said. “I’m here to tell you that if you take one of these yellow bikes and put it behind your house, your friends, your neighbors, your landlord, your girlfriend … they are looking for an opportunity to rat you out.”

This year, Rowe hopes to spend less time “scouring alleys for lost bicycles” and more time maintaining the bikes and doing community outreach.

Rowe credits part of the Yellow Bike program’s success to support from Mayor Jim Newberry, Vice Mayor Jim Gray and Urban County Council members who are trying to make Lexington a more bicycle-friendly city.

When cyclists staged a protest ride last year after state transportation crews ignored the city’s request to paint bike lanes on Vine Street after resurfacing, the vice mayor showed his support by riding along on a yellow bike.

“I was riding behind him,” Rowe said. “I noticed that, by coincidence, he was riding bike No. 2. I thought that was so funny.

“And, you know, I’ve never found bike No. 1; that’s one of the ones that’s missing,” he said with a laugh. “So, Jim Newberry, I’ve got my eye on you.”

BORROW A YELLOW BIKE

Beginning late next week, Yellow Bikes will be available for loan to program members at these five locations:

• High Street YMCA, 239 East High Street.
• Third Street Stuff, 257 North Limestone
• Pedal Power bicycle shop, corner of Upper and Maxwell streets.
• The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, Gratz Park, corner of Second and Market streets.
• Downtown Lexington Corp. offices, corner of South Limestone and Vine Street.

Other downtown businesses interested in sponsoring bikes or becoming loaner stations may contact the Yellow Bike program at (859) 425-2008 or www.lexingtonyellowbikes.com.
ID cards may be purchased for $10 at the Yellow Bike booths at Mayfest on Saturday in Gratz Park or the Peace and Global Citizenship Fair on Saturday at Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s Cooper Drive campus. They also may be purchased at the Downtown Lexington Corp. offices in the Phoenix Building at the corner of South Limestone and Vine Street.