Bike share program launches May 5

Customers can rent the bikes for short destination trips around downtown.


Link Station Locations:

  • Evanston Ave. and Kiefaber St.
  • Brown St. and Irving Ave.
  • Brown St. and Caldwell St.
  • Brown St. and Stewart St.
  • Zehler Ave.
  • Brown St. and Oak St.
  • Theobald Ct. and Clover St.
  • E. Fifth St. and High St.
  • E. Fifth St. and Wayne Ave.

Dayton’s bike share program, called Link, will begin renting bicycles at its stations in and around the downtown area beginning next month.

The organization said Tuesday it plans to launch the program during The Square is Where event on Courthouse Square May 5 at noon.

“What this is going to do for downtown is increase cycling as a form of commuting,” said Laura Estandia, executive director of Bike Miami Valley, who will be running the program along with the Greater Dayton RTA.

Link initially will offer 24 stations in and around downtown Dayton, which are being installed this week.

“They’re starting to go in the ground. People are starting to see them and ask questions,” said Estandia.

Station locations were selected based on their proximity to key hot spots and employment and activity centers, including restaurants, shops and arts and entertainment attractions.

Thirteen stations will be placed in the Central Business District, east of the Great Miami River with a southbound border of Fifth Street.

Five stations will be located around the University of Dayton Campus. UD was one of the founding sponsors of the program. The Dayton Art Institute and the UD Research Institute will have docking stations.

“For us it’s just another evolution of biking here in the Miami Valley,” said Brian Martin, executive director of the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. “Instead of walking to say the Dragons baseball stadium, I could take a Link bike.”

The system will have 225 bicycles, which are expected to arrive this week, available for rent for short point-to-point trips when the program rolls out.

Annual memberships will cost $65 and 4-month semester passes will run $45. It will cost $30 for a monthly pass and $5 for a daily pass.

“You can use your credit card or your member card to check out a bike and you’ll have that bike for roughly 30 minutes with your membership,” said Estandia. An additional fee of $2 will be charged if you ride between 30-60 minutes and every 30 minutes after that will cost $5.

A membership also will be usable at cities that use the system Link will be using, called B-Cycle. Those cities include Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Nashville among others.

The $1 million to fund the building of the stations and purchase of the bicycles was obtained with $800,000 from the Federal Surface transportation budget and an additional $250,000 from Dayton government.

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