Richmond partners push e-bike lending library and city pauses to finalize share funding

Richmond Rising partners presented two e-bike initiatives at the CSC meeting: a community e-bike lending library with training and a citywide e-bike-share program managed by Ride Today.

Mayelli, project manager for the e-bike lending library, described a three-part model that includes construction of a lending-library building at Unity Park, a basic maintenance and training (BTM) program delivered as five one-hour sessions, and a lending scheme where participants may rent or borrow e-bikes for short-term use. "Our participants will take a five-hour course during a five series, a five-hour course, sorry, one hour um each time. Um they will graduate with a free ebike," she told the committee. She asked partners to attend a City Council presentation on June 16 to support a budget request.

Matias Brock reported that the City Council approved funding for the Ride Today e-bike share through the end of June and that city staff and Ride Today will coordinate a longer-term funding approach: "the city council approved funding for the program through the end of June... Ride Today and the city of Richmond will be working together to um figure out what's the best funding strategy going forward." The city also reported $67,000 in e-bike-share expenditures to date and $392,000 remaining in that line item.

Budget figures for the lending library were presented: expenditures about $295,000 and $2.1 million remaining. Staff said next steps are the City Council presentation and pursuit of additional funding.

Next steps: lending-library partners will present to City Council (June 16), continue outreach and seek supplemental funding; city staff and Ride Today will study long-term funding options for the e-bike share.