Phila. expands bikeshare program after a booming first year

INDEGO, the city's bike-sharing system, celebrated its first birthday Thursday. And, as with any good birthday party, there were a lot of presents, from 24 new docking stations to 300 new bicycles, and a new way for low-income residents to pay to use the system.

Mayor Kenney led the celebrations on a sun-splashed Race Street Pier, one of the locations that received a new docking station. Kenney said he was surprised by the success of the program, which by the end of 2015 had reported 8,300 memberships and 421,000 rides taken.

"I thought it would be successful, [but] probably not as successful as it is," he said. "We have a new cohort of people living in the city who want this kind of service."

A $1.5 million grant from the William Penn Foundation helped pay for the expansion.

Twenty-four new stations will come online this spring across Philadelphia, from Pennsport to Strawberry Mansion.

There is a heavy emphasis on neighborhoods north and west of Center City in the new round of stations. Eight of them will be in a swath of the city bounded by Fairmount and Pennsylvania Avenues to the south, 33rd and Dauphin Streets to the northwest, and 22nd Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue to the northeast.

West of the Schuylkill, new stations will come online at 34th Street and Mantua Avenue, 42nd Street and Lancaster Avenue, and 46th and Market Streets. The last of those is likely to be a connector point for Indego riders throughout West Philadelphia to SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line.

As Indego plans to take the total number of stations to more than 100, there are also designs to head toward the restaurant strip on East Passyunk Avenue, the sports complex and the Navy Yard.

"We are working toward that goal with each successive expansion," said Cara Ferrentino, who works on the Indego program in the city's Office of Transportation and Infrastructure.

She would not give a target date, as further expansion of the program relies in part on grants.

Indego's arrival in some of the city's poorer neighborhoods comes with a new way for low-income residents to use the service. After becoming the first bike-share program in North America to offer a cash-based payment system, Indego will now allow Pennsylvania ACCESS cardholders 30 days of unlimited one-hour rides for just $5.

Finally, a new mobile app was announced that provides a station locator, live data on how many bicycles and spaces are available at each station, and the ability to contact Indego customer service on the fly. The app is available for Android and Apple iOS devices.

@JTannenwald

Staff writer Jason Laughlin contributed to this article.