With bike share programs popping up in bike-friendly cities throughout the country, a newly-formed organization, Puget Sound Bike Share (PSBS), is looking to bring bike share to Seattle.

Bike share programs consist of a fleet of rental bikes available at a network of stations located throughout a city. Bikes are available on demand to provide fast and easy access for short trips. 

The current generation of bike sharing programs began in Europe in 2004 and expanded to North America with the launch of Smartbike DC in 2008. Programs followed in cities such as Minneapolis, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Boulder, and Madison.  Local partners started looking at what it would take to launch a bike share program in the Seattle area and held a Bike Share Symposium in 2008, followed by a Bike Share Expo in 2009.

Resulting from those efforts and positive public response, representatives from public and private organizations partnered up to form Puget Sound Bike Share with a goal to bring bike sharing to King County by 2014 .

“Bike sharing is an innovative approach to urban mobility, combining the convenience and flexibility of a bicycle with the accessibility of public transportation,” states the organization’s website. “Our vision is to provide King County residents and visitors access to a low-cost, fast, flexible, and convenient transportation alternative with economic, social, and environmental benefits to the region.”

The non-profit 501(c) 3 status pending organization includes representatives from agencies and institutions such as King County, the cities of Seattle, Redmond, and Kirkland, Sound Transit, the Puget Sound Regional Council, the  University of Washington, Seattle Children’s, Microsoft, and the Cascade Bicycle Club.

PSBS is currently seeking a highly motivated Executive Director who will launch the Seattle bike share system. The ideal candidate should be a professional who is passionate about urban mobility and the potential transformational impact of Bike Share on community livability.

The Executive Director will be tasked with providing leadership for the fundraising, planning and implementation of tasks necessary to launch the bike share program.

Visit PugetSoundBikeShare.org to learn more about the organization and the Executive Director position.

 

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2012 at 9:05 am by Anne-Marije Rook and is filed under Around town, Jobs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.