Environmental Protection Agency staff and experts will be in Baton Rouge next week to discuss options for creating a bike share program here.
Baton Rouge was awarded a technical assistance grant from the EPA earlier this year to help develop the program. Mayor Kip Holden’s office announced today the EPA staffers and experts will meet with local stakeholders on Tuesday and Wednesday. The public is invited to attend an information meeting on the program on Tuesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, 100 River Road.
Other cities such as Minneapolis, New York and Washington, D.C., have established bike share programs that allow residents and visitors to purchase daily, weekly or annual program memberships and/or pay hourly fees to check out a bike.
As discussed at a Downtown Development District meeting earlier this year, the bike share program will be developed in conjunction with the downtown greenway—a 2.7-mile, tree-lined path for cyclists and pedestrians that will wind through downtown and connect with City Park, the LSU Lakes and Southdowns neighborhood.
“A bike share plan for the city-parish will complement the continued public investment in alternative transportation projects downtown and the recent Metro Council adoption of Complete Streets,” Holden says in news release.
Local partners involved in the EPA technical assistance grant include the mayor’s office, Downtown Development District, Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Center for Planning Excellence, Baton Rouge Area Chamber, LSU, Southern University, Mid City Redevelopment Alliance, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation and Bike Baton Rouge, among others.
