After being delayed this summer, the county’s e-bike fleet will get rolling in July, according to Summit County Transportation Planner Carl Miller.
“They're going to be distributed this week, and then we should be live this weekend,” he said. “Really excited to see the bikes out again.”
Part of the delay was that the county’s software provider, Bewegen Technologies, recently went under. The county has secured a replacement, and Miller said they’re ready to go after finalizing insurance details in the coming days.
All of the stations from last year will be operational again this year, except for two.
Miller said the bike docks at the Silver Summit Justice Center will be moved elsewhere in that area and that the docks at the Jeremy Ranch roundabout need repair.
The 902 Utah Transportation Authority bus struck the Jeremy Ranch station this past winter.
There will be a few new locations too, but Miller isn’t ready to release details yet.
185 e-bikes are ready to go right now, and county mechanics will be pushing out more soon. Miller estimates the fleet will number 200 by the middle of the season.
The mechanics are new hires the Summit County Council approved in April, as part of a push to bring more e-bike operations in-house.
Bewegen had previously managed all aspects of Summit Bike Share.
Miller said it was good the county had already decided to shrink its contract with the company before it announced it would cease operations in May.
“We own the [bikes and docks], and we now have a local operations team,” he said. “So we were actually able to turn this around fairly quickly.”
A month later, Miller says the local operations team is planning outreach, including prizes or incentives for documenting your ride on social media and tagging Summit Bike Share.
For more information, and to stay up-to-date on when the bikes are ready to ride, check out Summit Bike Share on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
