The Summit Bike Share service carried 20,000 riders nearly 80,000 miles this summer, but thanks to winter weather rolling in, the bikes will go into hibernation until next spring.
Bike stations are located throughout the Park City, Snyderville, Kimball Junction, Silver Creek, and Jeremy Ranch areas. The stations in Park City began getting dismantled this week, and the rest of the stations will remain open until November 14th.
Park City Active Transportation Planner Austin Taylor says the Park City stations are the most popular in the system, but the Park City bikes are usually deactivated before the others to allow for servicing and to reduce the risk of damage from snow plows.
“We take them offline about a week or two weeks before the Summit County ones because of maintenance," says Taylor. "We want to make sure that we can easily plow around the bikes and that we can send the bikes into the warehouse before the snow hits because the winter weather can be really damaging for the bikes.”
Summit County Transportation Planner Chris Putt says the bikes are typically available from May-November. He says the decision to begin putting the bikes away now was made a few weeks ago when the Wasatch Back experienced the first snow storms of the year.
“The end date is a little flexible, be that November 1st, or other seasons we’ve shut down closer to November 15th," Putt says. "Generally speaking, we kind of plan for things to shut down this time of year knowing that the weather is always so variable in October.”
Taylor added that more bikes are expected to join the fleet in 2022.
