Plans are being finalized for the expansion of Baton Rouge’s bikeshare program.
Gotcha by Bolt, the company that provides bikeshare services in Baton Rouge, is planning to add 16 new hubs to accommodate 300 new bikes by the end of the year, general manager James Newkirk says. The additional bikes will increase the total fleet of bikes in Baton Rouge to 800.
The new stations will be on Government Street in Mid City. Others will be in the Health District along BREC’s Health Loop, a trail system that includes existing and proposed bike paths roughly linking the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Perkins Road Park to Ward Creek along Siegen Lane. (Check out 225‘s roundup of some restaurants around that area.)
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“We’re working with the city-parish to determine exactly where the hubs will go,” Newkirk says. “But we’re hoping to start installing them in the fall and be completed by the end of the year.”
Though the local bikeshare program got off to a slow start when it launched in mid-summer 2019, the pandemic shutdown in the spring of 2020 fueled a boost in ridership that has continued.
The company logged some 80,000 total trips in Baton Rouge in 2020, with the number of new users averaging 1,500 per month. Currently, the company is averaging more than 400 trips per day. (Check out a 225 story about the explosion of interest in biking during the pandemic.)
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“That’s fantastic because it’s a steady amount,” Newkirk says. “We’re down a little bit right now from earlier this summer because it’s been so hot and rainy, but overall we’re holding steady.”
Gotcha by Bolt, previously known as Gotcha, changed its name earlier this year, after its acquisition by Miami-based Bolt, a competing micromobility company.
This story originally appeared in an Aug. 2 edition of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.