By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
The Minuteman Bike Share will be bigger than ever this year following a state grant and a deal between Concord, Acton, Lincoln, and Maynard.
The rental program will include 35 bikes spread across seven stations, including two in Concord. Grant funding runs through 2027.
After years of stop-and-go rental efforts, town officials are celebrating the bike share’s latest iteration and hailing its multi-year structure.
“This is an exciting program,” said Select Board member Terri Ackerman during the March 17 board meeting.
Multiple attempts
Attempts at a Concord-area bike rental program date back to 2018. Officials revisited rentals in 2022 and have brought bikes back every year since.
While bikes bearing Minuteman branding have become familiar fixtures, officials have toggled between vendors and funding sources.
In 2023, bike rentals spanned Concord and Acton. In 2024, the program only operated in Concord.
With rental revenue falling short of program costs, Deputy Town Manager Megan Zammuto said officials have sometimes used donations to foot the bill. The town has also funded bikes out of its operating budget.
The recent funding windfall came last August when the state awarded $187,450 through its Shared Streets and Spaces Program. Zammuto presented the refreshed Minuteman Bike Share to the Select Board this week and said she’s “excited for [the] stability” that a three-year structure will provide.
“It really is enough time for people to know about the program,” she said.
High costs
In addition to Concord’s two stations, the bike share will include three sites in Acton and one station each in Maynard and Lincoln. Concord users will also have access to a pair of adaptive bikes.
Zammuto said officials hope to have bikes in place before next month’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution.
The bike share season usually runs through November.
In an email to The Concord Bridge, Zammuto said Tandem Mobility will run the revamped program. Officials had not finalized the hourly rental rate as of March 18.
Though she praised the program, the Select Board’s Ackerman flagged its cost. (The three-year grant allocates close to $1,800 per bike.)
Zammuto said the bill covers delivery, maintenance, and the vendor’s online payment processing platform. The vendor handles customer service and will shuttle bikes between stations if one site gets overloaded and another is almost empty.
Program earns praise
Riders using the Minuteman Bike Share have historically used an app to rent bikes. As in the past, users over the next three years will need to return their ride to a station to complete the rental.
Transportation Advisory Committee member and avid cyclist Phil Posner called the program expansion “terrific.”
Speaking with The Bridge before Zammuto’s Select Board presentation, Posner noted proposed safety upgrades on Concord roads and sidewalks and said he hopes infrastructure advancements will create a future where “people who are utilizing bikes to get around town will feel comfortable doing so.”
