Bike-Share

Metro Bike Share Opens in Venice, Santa Monica

Metro Bike Share celebrated 165 bikes at 15 stations to serve the Venice community

By Joe Linton

9:16 AM PDT on September 8, 2017

Metro Bike Share Opens in Venice, Santa Monica

Today Metro Bike Share celebrated its expansion to L.A.'s Venice Beach neighborhood. All photos by Joe Linton/Streetsblog L.A.

This article supported by Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney. Click on the bar for more information. — This article supported by Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney as part of a general sponsorship package. All opinions in the article are that of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of LABA. Click on the ad for more information.

This morning Metro kicked off its third 2017 expansion of Metro Bike Share. Today’s expansion adds 165 bicycles at 15 stations serving the city of Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice, including several in the adjacent city of Santa Monica, which connect the bike-share system to the Metro Expo Line.

The bike-share opening was marked with festivities at Venice Beach’s Windward Plaza. On hand to welcome the expansion were Metro Boardmember Jacqueline Dupont-Walker, Boardmember and L.A. City Councilmember Mike Bonin, Metro Deputy CEO Stephanie Wiggins, LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds, and Bicycle Transit Systems CEO Allison Cohen.

Dupont-Walker mentioned a long list of communities where bike-share expansion is being evaluated: North Hollywood, Culver City, Palms, Burbank, Huntington Park, Marina Del Rey, East L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley, to which Bonin added Playa Vista. With recent state funding announced, the next expansions will likely be in the Downtown/USC/South L.A./Expo Line area, and the San Gabriel Valley.

Councilmember Bonin, who represents the Venice community, emphasized the importance of creating inexpensive ways for Angelenos to get to the beach. He praised the fact that Venice now has access to two bike-share systems, with Santa Monica Breeze and Metro Bike Share overlapping in the area. Reynolds also welcomed the redundancy, stating that Los Angeles is big enough for multiple types of bike-share.

After the opening speeches, more than a hundred folks in attendance celebrated with a ride along the beach bike path.

Joe Linton

Bike-Share | LA Metro | Streetsblog LA

Comments Are Temporarily Disabled

Streetsblog is in the process of migrating our commenting system. During this transition, commenting is temporarily unavailable.

Once the migration is complete, you will be able to log back in and will have full access to your comment history. We appreciate your patience and look forward to having you back in the conversation soon.