Marianne LaBarge City Councilor | Ward 6 | Northampton, MA

WARD 6

         CITY COUNCILOR

MARIANNE LABARGE
Text Box: NORTHAMPTON - Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, Northampton’s Office of Planning and Sustainability, and partner communities are excited to announce that ValleyBike Share is relaunching in the Pioneer Valley on Monday, August 12, 2024. The system restarts in partnership with Drop Mobility, who was selected as the vendor to bring ValleyBike back to the streets, serving 10 municipalities including the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The relaunch will feature 300 existing bikes and 50 Drop e-bikes.    Drop Mobility operates bike share systems for municipal organizations across North America, in 50+ communities. Drop Mobility, the City of Northampton, and its system partners believe strongly in sustainability and were able to repurpose existing bikes and docks, moving them from the former system to the Drop platform and further expanding the system by adding Drop e-bikes and docks.    “We are so excited to bring back this popular micromobility program that has been so important in serving the transportation needs of our residents,” shared Mayor Sciarra, “I warmly invite all ValleyBike communities and residents to join us in the celebration of this launch at noon in Pulaski Park on August 12th, here in downtown Northampton.”   The program aims to provide healthy, sustainable, and equitable transportation options for the residents and visitors of the following municipalities: Northampton, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Amherst campus, Chicopee, Easthampton, Hadley, Holyoke, Springfield, South Hadley, and West Springfield. To encourage safe riding, ValleyBike will be giving away free helmets at the launch event to the first 15 people to arrive. Helmets will also be available to borrow for those who want to test ride the bikes. ValleyBike encourages helmet use for all ages as wearing helmets has been shown to reduce head injury by as much as 85%.   Details around pricing, equity memberships, and pre-sale deals will be live online at ValleyBike.org beginning Thursday, August 1, 2024.    The partners of ValleyBike Share wish to especially thank those previous sponsors of ValleyBike and those businesses and sponsors who have been hosting vacant stations throughout the Valley while we have regrouped for this relaunch. In Northampton, these include Big Y, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Colvest Group, Coopers Corner, Lilly and Forbes Libraries, Smith College, and the Hampshire Regional YMCA.   For businesses and community members interested in partnerships/sponsorship opportunities and bulk membership purchases, please contact isabel@dropmobility.com. Opportunities include branding visibility on bikes, stations, the mobile app, and the website.   Bikes will start arriving at their stations on Saturday, August 10, 2024, and will be available to rent beginning Monday, August 12, 2024, directly following the ribbon-cutting event. Community members are invited to join the relaunch party on Monday, August 12, 2024, at noon in Pulaski Park, where Mayor Sciarra will officially kick off the system’s relaunch. Historically, the system operated from April to the end of November, with a successful winter trial in 2021-2022. We will be exploring options to restart year-round operations at a later date.