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Youth-led community ride highlights Richmond Rising projects; partners continue to seek funds for ebike lending library as city adjusts public-share hours
Summary
Rich City Rides youth fellows led a July 5 community bike ride that highlighted Richmond Rising projects along the Greenway. Project leads said they are still seeking funding to close a shortfall for an ebike lending library. Separately, the city announced new operating hours for its public ebike-share program.
Youth fellows and program staff recapped a community ride on July 5 that began at Lucas Park, stopped at Keller Beach and Unity Park, and included informational “energizer” stations highlighting Richmond Rising projects along the Greenway.
Gabby, Richmond Rising youth-fellow program manager and Rich City Rides representative, described the July 5 route, the stations staffed by youth fellows and climate health promoters, and a community raffle. The ride involved outreach, safety trainings, a hike portion led by Moving Forward staff and prizes for participants.
Ebike lending library funding gap Gabby and project partners also said the ebike lending library team has been seeking additional funding and that Rich City Rides staff made presentations to Richmond City Council to request support toward closing a funding shortfall.
City ebike-share hours change Salma, community manager for the City of Richmond’s electric bike-share program, told the committee the city changed bike-availability hours after reviewing ridership. New hours are Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–6 p.m. and weekends 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; previously the system operated roughly from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Why it matters: The community ride is part of Richmond Rising’s active-transportation outreach to increase cycling access and awareness of local projects. The ebike-lending library is a proposed longer-term program to expand access; partners continue to seek funding to implement it.
Details from the ride and outreach - The ride began at Lucas Park with snacks and outreach materials and proceeded to Keller Beach for a hike and an energizer station run by climate health promoters. Unity Park hosted a second station with project information and restroom access. The ride concluded back at Lucas Park with a raffle for small prizes. - Rich City Rides reported total expenditures to date of $292,000 and a remaining budget of $2.2 million for youth-fellow and ride-related programs (figures presented by Gabby for the youth-fellow program); the ebike-lending library project separately reported $202,107 in expenditures and a remaining budget figure of $2.2 million.
Next steps and community outreach Project leads said they will continue outreach, hire a TCC community-organizer position for the youth-fellow program, and pursue additional funding for the ebike lending library. The city asked residents to follow Richmond Rising and Rich City Rides on Instagram for event and volunteer information.
Ending The committee thanked the youth fellows for the presentation and partners for continued outreach; no formal action was taken.
