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Municipal bike-share has arrived in the San Fernando Valley. North Hollywood now has Metro Bike Share.
Leaders welcomed the new bike-share expansion this morning at an opening celebration at the NoHo Metro Orange/Red Line Station. L.A. City Councilmember and Metro boardmember Paul Krekorian praised the new system for bringing first/last mile connections to Metro transit. LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds lauded Metro Bike Share as affordable, reliable, and a true extension of public transit. Metro Senior Executive Officer Holly Rockwell announced that Metro has plans to expand Metro Bike Share to 4,000 bikes in the coming years. The system currently has about 1,500 bikes.
To ride NoHo Metro bikes, register via Metro's TAP website or via the Metro Bike Share app or follow the screen prompts at a pass-vending kiosk station such as North Hollywood. Pay-per-ride is $1.75 for 30 minutes. Day, month, and year passes are also available for $5, $17, and $150 respectively.
The new expansion area includes stations in the L.A. City neighborhoods of North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, and Valley Village. There are currently 16 stations, with 160 bikes. Krekorian announced that by the end of 2019 there will be six additional NoHo area stations and 50 additional bikes.
The NoHo area uses "smart-bike" technology, so there is a strong incentive to use docks, with riders paying an extra $2 convenience fee to leave bikes locked up at non-dock locations within the service area. The NoHo smart-bikes are the same as the ones currently available on the Westside.
Metro Bike Share now operates in four service areas:
- Central Los Angeles - including downtown L.A., Chinatown, the Exposition Park/USC area, Westlake MacArthur Park, East Hollywood, and Koreatown
- Westside Los Angeles - including Palms, Mar Vista, Venice, and Santa Monica Expo Line stations
- North Hollywood - including Toluca Lake and Valley Village
- Port of Los Angeles
Users can access bikes in all of the service areas under one membership or one TAP account.
The bike-share docks at North Hollywood Station are located on the west side of Lankershim Boulevard, near the Orange Line station.
Note that that the NoHo Orange Line Station is currently temporarily out of service for installation of electric bus charging infrastructure. Riders catch the Orange Line BRT bus just south of the station on Chandler Boulevard.