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Heartland B-Cycle's bike sharing program to double in size by 2019

Heartland B-Cycle will partner with the City of Omaha to expand its bike sharing program across the city.

Ben Turner, Executive Director of Heartland Bikeshare, says Heartland B-Cycle has been steadily growing since its inception.

Turner says the program started with five stations in 2011 and has grown to 33 stations this year.  

He says one thing they identified as a tool for growth was a federal grant program called the CMAQ program.  CMAQ stands for congestion mitigation air quality. 

Turner says it’s administered through the Nebraska Department of Roads.  

He says they partnered with Metropolitan Area Planning Agency to apply for funds to double the size of their program.

"What’s written in our grant application is that we are going to add 36 stations and 152 bikes to our system.  So we received notice of the award in 2015 and then we discovered we needed a municipal partner to own the equipment and so we went to the city of Omaha and they agreed to own this equipment for us which will enable us to execute on this grant."

Turner says they also received matching funds from the Nebraska Environmental Trust which means they have a fully funded project that’s moving forward toward expansion. 

He says new stations will be placed near current bus stops and heavily populated areas.

For more information, the website is HeartlandBCycle.com.