Bike-sharing programs peddled for Tucson

From the Tucson Citizen, 02.11.08:

Businesses across Tucson may not know it, but 2008 could be the year bicycles become part of the work day. Employees may be riding to meetings or even to lunch on company-owned bikes. City Hall, the University of Arizona and Tucson's biggest private business, Raytheon Missile Systems, all have bike sharing on their mind.

A few dozen city employees have climbed aboard the new City Cycle bike-sharing program of the city Transportation Department, and the numbers are expected to grow.
City Cycle started rolling in a few city offices four months ago. City workers can check out bikes and helmets at eight downtown locations and use them for work or lunch.

Public bike sharing a la Paris is not in the game plan yet, but can it be far behind with Tucson rated as one of only seven gold-level bike-friendly cities in 2006 by the League of American Bicyclists?

The official motivation for City Cycle is improving air quality and reducing fuel consumption, but that's not all Tom Thivener is shooting for as the city's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. "Tucson is a bike-friendly community," Thivener said. "We want to get people who don't normally get on bikes to get on bikes to get the spinoff effect of more people maybe riding bikes to work." (Read more.)

Extensive article on bike sharing developments in Arizona, including links to several online resources. Rather than a citywide public bike-sharing program, Tucson appears to be developing a model of employers providing a fleet of bikes for their staff's use.

Image: Web capture.
Visit: Seattle Hospital Launches Bike Fleet
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips Site