Columbus’ bike-share program, now in its third year, has cut expenses and is considering changes to reverse declining ridership and find ways to be viable long-term.
ColumBIKE, launched by the Columbus Park Foundation in May 2016, had an administrative office and storage facility in a rented space along Second Street. To reduce expenses, however, ColumBIKE in June moved into Donner Center, where the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is based.
The lease for the Second Street building, which was expiring, was $2,000 per month, said ColumBIKE director Dick Boyce, the program’s only paid staff member.
The foundation didn’t want to keep absorbing that cost, said Chip Orben, president of the foundation board, which is also looking at other expenses.
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The board will review its contract with Bicycle Station to perform maintenance on the program’s nearly 80 bicycles, placed at eight stations around the community, Orben said.
The ColumBIKE program costs about $70,000 a year to operate, said Mark Jones, director of the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department and an ex-officio park foundation board member.
That total includes maintenance of the bikes and bike stations, salary for Boyce and other administrative costs.
Orben said the foundation hopes to find a business model for ColumBIKE that will release it from operational responsibilities.
“We don’t have an active interest in running things after we raise the money for them,” Orben said. “Our true mission is fundraising for the parks department.”
ColumBIKE has enough money to get through this year and is within a few hundred dollars of being on target, Jones and Orben said, but ridership — which generates income — continues to trend downward.
Riders completed 2,967 trips the first year of the program from May to December of 2016. But that number dropped to 2,634 trips for the full 12 months of 2017. Through July 24 of this year, there have been 1,209 bike trips, reflecting further declines, ColumBike statistics show.
The number of bicycle riders who purchase $80 annual memberships is also dropping.
The first year, 79 memberships were purchased. That number fell to 40 in 2017. So far this year, 15 annual passes have been purchased, Boyce said.
“I think ColumBIKE is pretty special, but we’re not getting enough people on the bikes,” Jones said.
A rebirth of the ColumBIKE program may be necessary, Jones said. With that in mind, foundation officials are revisiting every component of the bike-share program, including the possibility of finding new partners to help.
All of the money that’s been invested in the program has been raised privately by the park foundation, with no tax dollars utilized, he said.
Cummins Inc. and Columbus Regional Hospital were among donors who provided at least $200,000 each to launch ColumBIKE. Another seven sponsors have donated $5,000 to $15,000 each.
Columbus is one of 51 cities using BCycle equipment for its program, but it is a small market compared to most, Boyce said.
To counteract size limitations, ColumBiKE is exploring modifying its pricing on the $80 annual memberships, Boyce said. As soon as a decision is made about what the annual membership price should be, there will likely be a push to add members by giving them added value. That would come in access to all BCycle operations, allowing Columbus program members to ride for free in other communities, he said.
There are other ideas also being considered in conversations between the park foundation and the city.
“One of the things we are exploring expands beyond being a bike-share program, addressing the entire bicycle community in Columbus,” Boyce said.
Post-meeting discussion
Members of the Columbus Park Board, a separate public entity, have also discussed ColumBIKE. The most recent time was after its July 12 meeting.
Jones and two park board members, vice president Julie Abedian and secretary Millie Maier, can be seen and heard talking about ColumBIKE after their meeting ended, captured by the city’s video-streaming service.
They talked about re-evaluating funding options for the city’s bike-share program and changes that could result in sustainability. There is also discussion about funding for ColumBIKE staff and finding a new community partner to help cover administrative and maintenance costs.
The July conversation was not a violation of the state’s Open Door Law because the post-meeting discussion didn’t include a majority of park board members.
Two months earlier, however, the city park board did violate the Open Meeting Law when all four board members and Jones continued talking about business after their May 10 meeting. Those conversations were also captured by the city’s video streaming service.
Those discussions centered around the worsening condition of Donner Center, the city’s 71-year-old parks department administrative offices, which ColumBIKE just moved into.
No decisions have been made in public on whether to renovate or raze Donner Center, and the new five-year parks master plan gives no specific recommendation about what to do with the facility, other than pointing out that significant maintenance issues are hampering its use.
About $450,000 was invested in Donner Center in August 2012 for roof repairs and the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The city’s parks department has $20,000 in capital funding set aside for roof repairs and other improvements at the Donner Park shelter house.
The video records board members talking after the May 10 meeting about ways to get the community to buy into and support replacing Donner Center, including holding educational sessions about the need for a new community recreation center. There is also conversation about parks staff offices, now based at Donner.
Jones said park board attorney Michael DeArmitt took him aside and told him that conversations after the May meeting violated Indiana’s open meetings law, since it included a quorum of the board.
“ ‘You can’t do that,’ “ Jones said the attorney told him.
“That was totally on me. I got caught up in the moment,” Jones said. “It’s my responsibility and it won’t happen again.”
The park board members may not have intended to violate the law, but whatever they are discussing after adjournment could be the basis for a future decision by the board, said Steve Key, Hoosier State Press Association executive director,
Jones said he has talked individually with parks board members — Abedian, Maier, Mark Levett and John McCormick — about the requirements of the open meetings law and that they cannot have similar conversations in the future after the board session adjourns.
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Here are the pricing options for ColumBIKE:
- Annual pass: $80
- Monthly pass: $20
- Hourly rate: $3
The ColumBIKE office is located inside Donner Center, 739 22nd St.
Bike-rental checkout hours from eight kiosk locations are 5 a.m. to midnight. Bikes can be returned to kiosks anytime.
Information: Call 812-799-3563; send an email to [email protected]; or visit columbike.bcycle.com or Facebook.com/columbike/timeline.
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Donner Center: 739 22nd St.
Columbus Regional Health: 2400 17th St.
ColumBUS Depot: 850 Lindsey St.
Columbus Area Visitors Center: 506 Fifth St.
Cummins Engine Plant: 500 Central Ave.
Cummins Technical Center: 1900 McKinley Ave.
Jackson Street parking garage
Fourth and Washington streets
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