BikeTown Set To Launch July 14: What You Need to Know

Portland's long-awaited bike share program, BikeTown, is set to launch on July 19.

The program will have 1,000 bikes at 100 stations around the city that will be available to people under a variety of plans including single-ride, 24-hour passes, and annual memberships.

“With today’s announcement, we are taking another giant step toward making BikeTown a reality,” said Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick. “When we launch on July 19th, we’re going to have one of the best bike share systems in the world.”

The city held more than 40 community meetings, five town halls, and received more than 4,500 comments online in planning out the system. They are contracting with Motivate, a Brooklyn-based company that operates bike share programs in several cities including New York, Seattle, and Chicago.

“This station map gives Portlanders 100 more reasons to be excited about BikeTown,” Transportation Director Leah Treat said. “I want to thank the thousands of Portlanders who took the time to give us their input on station locations. July 19th can’t come soon enough!”

Annual memberships - which can be purchased online at the program's website - cost $12 each month and include 90 minutes of riding time each day. Single rides - 30 minutes - all be available to $2.50 and a $12 day pass will give someone 180 minutes ride time.

BikeTown will release an App shortly before lunch People will be able to use their smart phone to check out a bike. They will also be able to type their member number and PIN into a keypad on the bike.

If you check out a bike and park it somewhere other than one of the system's stations, you will be charged a fee. If you return it to one of the stations, you will get a credit.

The bikes are GPS-equipped and you will be able find out if there available bikes at a particular station.