ValleyBike settles into winter riding, plans new locations for near futureDate: 2/22/2022 WESTERN MASS – After a successful trial year in 2021, ValleyBike will continue to be available throughout the winter months in 2022, especially now with Springfield back open after being closed all of 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns.
“The winter time’s going pretty good,” said Shannon Bliven, ValleyBike’s outreach coordinator. According to Bliven, there are less riders using the regional bike sharing network during the winter compared to the rest of the year. Despite this though, people rode for a total of 6,925 miles throughout the month of December 2021 and took 4,262 trips in total. “I expect that to go way down in January just because it’s been freezing,” said Bliven. “But we still see people riding.”
Bliven, who works for Bewegen, the company hired to run ValleyBike, said that the stations will remain open during minor weather events, depending on the magnitude, since there have been a couple riders in the past who needed a bike during poor weather. If a storm reaches three to six inches of snow or more, then ValleyBike will most likely be closed in that area. Either way, there will not be extended closures like last year, and once the roads are clear, the stations will open back up immediately-especially since the program has become such a commodity. Some stations will be unavailable in the winter altogether though, due to snow removal obstacles.
“We want to make sure that the bikes are available as often as possible because it’s really an essential service to [people] now,” said Bliven. “It’s no longer a novelty … it’s really becoming part of the landscape in the valley.”
The pedal-assist bikes are available year-round for rent for short-distance rides in eight communities in Hampden and Hampshire counties, including the UMass Amherst campus. Many of the stations are conveniently placed near grocery stores and hospitals in their service area, and Bliven said two new stations will be set up in Chicopee at Rivers Park on Park Street and near the bike path at Chicopee Falls once the necessary parts are ready. They also added a station at Conz Street in Northampton and one at American International College in Springfield in December, as well as at the Big Y in Northampton in November. West Springfield also launched their own station outside the public library, and they have another one at the corner of Memorial Avenue and Union Street. “It’s really exciting … it’s growing and growing,” said Bliven.
Additionally, Springfield will also have two new stations coming into the city, but Bliven said they are still figuring out where the exact locations for those will be. “The cities have been amazing with all of the work they’ve done,” said Bliven, adding that each city owns their own portion of ValleyBike with different rules and regulations. “We went from three stations in Easthampton to five.”
According to Wayne Feiden, the director of planning and sustainability in Northampton, the city has been integral in coordinating ValleyBike throughout the region since its inception in 2018. Amherst, Northampton, South Hadley, Holyoke, Chicopee, Springfield, West Springfield, Easthampton and UMass are currently the eight regions who have joined the program.
After a rocky 2020 where the program was closed for four months due to the pandemic, 2021 ended with the program’s highest ridership ever in one year. Despite the ups-and-downs, Feiden said that the city found that ValleyBike was one of the safest programs to conduct during the pandemic due to the outdoor element, as long as proper sanitization is being conducted.
While coordinating the program throughout the region, Feiden said that he has noticed a shift in why people use the bikes. “I think the rides have changed,” said Feiden, “I think there are less journeys to work and more recreation rides.”
As with the rest of the year, people can access a bike in the winter by downloading the ValleyBike app-which is one of the most popular methods for utilizing the program. People can now obtain whatever type of membership they want with ValleyBike through the app, and for those who do not have a phone with reliable data or access to data, Bewegen can send out key fobs to those people, which is a teardrop-shaped plastic that is kept on the center console of the bike. People can then keep track of their progress by logging onto the ValleyBike website.
The program also offers an access pass, which is available for residents who are currently receiving S.N.A.P. benefits, Section 8 housing, or MassHealth Standard. Under the access pass, people would pay $10 for an annual pass to have unlimited hour-long rides. People can either pay with credit or debit on the app or send in a money order with an application on their website. This particular program is supported by the Community Foundation of Western Mass.
To learn more about the ValleyBike program, where it is available, and how to obtain a membership, people can visit https://www.valleybike.org/.
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