BUFFALO, N.Y. — You've heard of libraries for books. But what about libraries for bikes? That's how a fleet of easy-to-ride e-bikes will be available to the community for a test run this summer.
"You hear e-bike, you think, maybe it has this motor and needs gas," Team Integrator Brian Archie of the Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Collaborative told 2 On Your Side. "None of that. Again its battery-charged, super quiet, ease of modality is just out of this world."
Archie and the collaborative are in the process of building a bike library that they hope will be up and running in a few weeks.
"Once our location is approved, we intend to have the library at our location on Pine Avenue," he said. "We're still working on language around usage for people within the community because it will be a free program for them for the 12 weeks of the program's duration."
Buffalo-based nonprofit Shared Mobility acquired the donation of e-bikes from Uber last year. Project Manager Tyler Madell says they'll test the bike library model both in the Falls and with the East Side Bike Club of Buffalo. The goal of getting people moving, and making transportation more accessible.
"It makes starting up much easier, it makes riding longer distance much easier and these particular bikes we have are incredible because they're not only pedal assist, but they were built with GPS tracking in them as well," he told 2 On Your Side.
"Whether it's short term, or it's longer-term, you think of a public library, and you rent a book for a week. What if you were able to rent a bicycle for a week, an electric bike what kind of uses could come from that?"
The Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Collaborative hosted bike demos at a Father's Day event on Saturday, June 19 at the Community Health Center of Niagara. More information is available here.