A partnership between The Street Trust and We All Rise, a Black and women-led consulting firm, will bring 90 new electric bikes to the region.
Armed with a grant from Portland General Electric and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, The Street Trust says the program will be called Ride2Own and will be, ” a pioneering program aimed at enhancing e-bike safety, equity, and accessibility in Oregon.”
75 of the 90 bikes come from PGE’s Drive Change Fund, which announced their list of grantees last Friday.
The Street Trust says the Ride2Own program will consist of deployments of 15 bikes in four different parts of town. The first phase will be a year-long pilot in the Portsmouth neighborhood in north Portland that will begin October 1st. The program will specifically target Portlanders with lower incomes who would other not have access to e-bikes. Everyone who takes part in the program will track their experience over a one-year period and will be able to keep the bike at the end of the pilot. The other parts of the region that will take part are Parkrose, Milwaukie, and Hillsboro.
Here’s more shared by The Street Trust in a statement Tuesday night:
“Ride2Own will go beyond most current eBike subsidy programs – delivering not only free eBikes, but also training , safety gear, maintenance/repairs, and community- building events. The program design and execution is advised by compensated community members and transportation experts across disciplines to support the integrity and accessibility of each pilot. Ride2Own’s overarching goal is to create positive, transformative experiences through eBiking and initiate a ripple effect that expands sustainable transportation options for residents and reduces the amount that people drive (VMT, vehicle miles traveled) across the region.”
“Through Ride2Own, we’re providing more than free e-bikes,” added The Street Trust Executive Director Sarah Iannarone, “We’re equipping, educating, and empowering community members who’ve been historically excluded from e-mobility.”
A media and launch event are set for the end of this month.
I can empathize with wanting to carry momentum and drive for an immediate program rollout, but October leading directly into winter, seems like a challenging time to pilot a program for getting people on bikes… I hope rain gear, patch kits, pumps, etc will also be provided to these initial 15 riders to stave off some of the seasonal challenges.
Also the math jumps out at me, do they say where the remaining 30 bikes will be going? If the program proves to be successful it would be great to see similar things in the future.
Gotta admit I am a little worried that there are going to be at least 15 more “new” cyclists on ebikes. Here’s hoping they are class 1 bicycles.
Rad Power popup incoming to scoop up all the rebates.
How are these 90 or so lucky people selected? I am hoping its a fair selection, and not based on someone happening to someone in a non-profit.
This project inspired me to look for grants from my own local power company (Duke Power of NC) – and yes, sure enough they give out money, up to $20,000 for worthy greenwashing projects, including what they call “social justice” projects.
How does a person get in to this program?
Find grants, meet requirements, start writing proposals. Or pay someone to write your grant proposals for you.
It helps to have a 501c3 nonprofit, or to borrow the use of another as a “fiscal sponsor”, plus some volunteers to help out and some sort of vague nebulous “mission” that sounds good. Don’t forget to fund the staff needed for the project with at least a small stipend paid to a gig 1099 MISC contractor (yourself maybe?)
Useful catch-all phrase I got from a hospital system: “Our programs are addressing systemic health inequities by impacting the social and environmental factors that drive health equity.”
How do you register for this???
I cannot drive a car but I can ride a ebike.