MetroBike to get a makeover this summer after a pause in operations

On July 1, the city’s bike rental program, MetroBike, will shut down in order to undergo a transformational change. When it reopens in mid-July, CapMetro Bikeshare will have new stations, e-bikes and an app, along with a vision to expand across the city.

The retooling of the bikeshare program is part of a strategic expansion plan that will grow the system from the current 76 stations to more than 300 over the next 10 years and electrify the fleet of bicycles for hire. City Council approved a Texas Department of Transportation advance funding agreement at its last meeting on May 30. That agreement directed about $11.3 million in grant funds and $2.8 million in local funds toward the project and outlined capital investments from TxDOT that will support the expansion of the system.

This summer, Council also will consider an amendment to the interlocal agreement with Capital Metro that will detail the process of moving on from the B-Cycle program in terms of things like reselling and disposing of bikes, data sharing and an outline for capital and operational investments over the next decade. At the moment, the city owns all of the hardware for the bike program and Capital Metro operates the system.

As for the present, the program will take a summer break next month, relaunching when the University of Texas at Austin stations are reinstalled. According to Nadia Barrera-Ramirez, who is the Cross-Agency Transit and Mobility Programs manager at Capital Metro, that will be about mid-July, with a rolling installation of stations to continue through the summer. Capital Metro is planning to install four stations a day during this transition period and aims to have a fully replaced and renamed system by mid-August of this year.

During this period, memberships and day passes will be on pause. Memberships are no longer available as of May 31 and, on June 29, day passes will be paused as well. Barrera-Ramirez explained that any time left on annual memberships will be available through a promo code that can be used in the new system. That new system will require a new account (and app) when it’s up and running by August.

At their most recent meeting, members of City Council’s Mobility Committee reviewed the transition plans and looked toward the future expanded system. Barrera-Ramirez explained that public input so far has shown people want more stations and more electric bikes.

“Overwhelmingly, people want to use these bikes to get to fun places in Austin, to explore and enjoy everything that Austin has to offer. Some people are using it to get to and from school, and others are using it as a way to connect to their bus or train or car,” she said.

Council Member Zo Qadri said he was “really excited about more docking stations coming up throughout the city.” 

“I know a lot of folks in our district use it,” he said, asking where and when the new stations will be built.

Barrera-Ramirez said that they were anticipating the next round of stations to be built in spring of 2025. 

Council Member Paige Ellis asked about dockless bikes, citing a lack of stations in her District 8, but there are no plans yet to incorporate them into the public bikeshare system.

“We have leaned away from dockless, just in general, because a docked bike is more organized and has better anti-theft systems,” Barrera-Ramirez said. “I hope that we have more stations in District 8.”

Austin’s transportation demand program manager, Jacob Barrett, said that the city was exploring dockless options outside of the MetroBike system and had applied for a climate pollution reduction grant that could fund mobility hubs.

“It could be a really good opportunity to bring a different sort of decentralized solution to the far-flung areas of District 8 and District 2 that might not be served by a docked solution,” Barrett said.

To weigh in on this phase of the expansion, a virtual open house will be open until June 16 at publicinput.com/metrobike.

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