New Bike Sharing Program may be coming soon

A new Bike Share program is being considered by the City of Miami and Coconut Grove is one of the locations being considered. The City Commission was discussing it yesterday. I love the idea. I don't think many locals would be using the bikes, but I feel that many tourists would enjoy them. I do hear tourists asking for bike rentals once in a while from the Grove Ambassadors, so this would accommodate them and be something they are asking for.

I have used free or rental bikes offered in other cities and I did it simply because I saw them. They were an impulse thing. I've rented bikes in Central Park in New York many times and in San Francisco, Boston and even in little 'ol Punta Gorda, Florida, which has a small and thriving downtown area these days. I rented the bikes in the parks and other locations, but I took them all over the place in those cities. If I remember right, I rented a bike at one end of San Francisco, like near Union Square and I took it all the way to the Pacific ocean.

In Punta Gorda, the hotel I was staying at, I think it was the Four Points, right on the Peace River, offered the bikes for free, so a friend and I took them up on the offer and we had a splendid day riding around the waterfront and downtown area. We stopped for lunch and that's when I took the photos for this story I did on the Gallery Walks. The bikes allowed me to see things that I wouldn't have experienced from the car while driving from one location to the next. You're more engaged with an area when your on bicycles.

We have 300 NBA big shots coming to town this weekend who will be staying in Coconut Grove hotels (these are not the players, they are the executives), they are being offered special deals all around the village at shops and restaurants, it would be super to add bicycle rentals to their list of options. I have a lot of family members coming to town for a wedding in a few months, they booked a block of rooms at a Grove hotel, I would easily go bike riding one day with a bunch of my family. There's something about a simple bicycle that is very quaint but fun and cool at the same time.

I like the fact that this Miami bicycle program is not about money, but more about providing a service. There is a lot of potential. Let's go for it! I can easily see a tourist taking bicycle rides around the Grove, down toward the waterfront or up Main Highway toward Matheson Hammock and that area.