Huntingburg introduces new bike-share program

Just in time for summer, Huntingburg will introduce an automated bike-share service through the city park system.

The program initiated as a capstone project for the 2014 Dubois County Leadership Academy will partner the city with Zagster — a leader in providing bike rental services across the country — to provide six bikes for adults and two for children to be rented by the hour or for the day.

The Leadership Academy team comprised of Ferdinand Town Manager Chris James, Melanie Jones of Kimball International and Debbie Ramirez and Sara Thompson of Vincennes University Jasper Campus brought the idea to the Huntingburg Park Board after the group’s initial project idea didn’t pan out.

“We had settled on a different idea and it turned out to not be as feasible as we thought, so we went into a sort of a crunch mode trying to come up with a project,” James said. “Debbie in her position as the librarian at VUJ (Vincennes University Jasper Campus) kinda polled some of the students at the university for ideas.

One student suggested the idea of a bicycle vending machine and the group began to research the idea and found Zagster.

The company provides a turnkey system of high-quality bikes that can be rented with a debit or credit card from the stand-alone vending machine. Rates are $3 per hour or $24 for a full 24 hours.

Users download an iPhone or Android app that will provide them with a code to unlock a bike from the rack. The same code will be used on a provided bike lock for use when the rider needs to lock up the bike during their trips around town.

Codes are also accessible by text messages.

The rental bikes are a lightweight, sturdy construction designed for comfortable rides around the city. They come outfitted with a basket to carry items in. Zagster is responsible for ongoing maintenance and a service number is located on the frame of the bike if it breaks down during use.

According to James, the group chose Huntingburg as a location for the capstone project due to its accessible trails and park system. “With the planned expansion of the trail system with the Stellar program, we just thought Huntingburg was the right place to test the bike-share system,” he said. “Plus, Mayor Spinner is working to include the community in more fitness activities like the 5-5-5 5K Run/Walk.”

The Heritage Trail is a planned Stellar Project that will create a loop trail connecting the north and south sides of the city using the finished overpass. It will also connect the parks and historic Fourth Street.

Details about the Huntingburg bike-share program can be found here.

The ease of the program is what attracted the Huntingburg Park Board and Huntingburg Parks Director Jim Rueger to the bicycle system. The Leadership team pitched the board the idea in June last year just in time for the 2015 budget process. The Parks Department included the expense in the budget and it was approved.

The city contacted Zagster in November with intentions to implement the system in the spring. Because of the early notice, a $3,000 installation/distribution fee was waived by the company. As part of the annual contract, the city will pay $880 a month for the bikes. The city receives 93 percent of the rental fees collected by Zagster.

Rueger said those fees will offset the ongoing fees for the lease of the bikes.

The parks department wanted to have the bikes available in March or April but the weather slowed down the construction of a pad that will be located near the swimming pool facing Cherry Street. Now, a grand-opening is planned for Friday, May 22, right before Memorial Weekend.

Depending on the success of the initial offering, Rueger would like to offer more bikes in other areas of the city. “I had first thought it would be better to locate this downtown somewhere, but the Leadership team wanted to place it in the park,” Rueger said. “Depending on how it goes over the next year, I could see this expanding to other areas of the city.”

“We have a lot of tourism in Huntingburg so we think it is something they will like to use,” Rueger said. “I think it a pretty neat idea.”

James agreed that the Huntingburg program will likely dictate whether Jasper or Ferdinand add the program to their parks budgets.

“I feel honored that the Leadership Academy team chose Huntingburg to bring this idea to,” Mayor Denny Spinner said today. “This is hopefully the first of many locations around Dubois County that comes from this project.