A $990,000 grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) will help finance an expansion of the ValleyBike bikesharing system across the 9 cities and towns it serves in western Massachusetts.
This funding comes from the MassCEC Accelerating Clean Transportation for All (ACT4All) grant program, which recently awarded $9 million for "innovative and equitable transportation" programs across the Commonwealth.
According to a press release issued Wednesday from the City of Northampton, whose Office of Planning & Sustainability administers the ValleyBike program, the grant funding will support the system's operational costs for the next two years.
The grant will also let ValleyBike add new bikes and stations, which would be "strategically located near affordable housing and employment hubs," according to the press release.
Carolyn Misch, Director of Planning & Sustainability for the City of Northampton, told StreetsblogMASS that roughly one-quarter of the new grant funding will go towards system expansion to buy six to eight new stations and 75-100 additional bikes.
"We are going to work with PVTA (the regional transit authority) to look at opportunities that fit with each community to best determine new station locations," Misch said. "It will be a mix of that work, where we have seen pent up demand already, and targeting communities that rely on bikeshare or the bus for their primary mode of transportation."
ValleyBike is a municipally-owned bikesharing system that currently includes 350 pedal-assist electric bikes across 79 stations that span from West Springfield to Amherst.
The City of Westfield – home of the Columbia Greenway – recently joined the ValleyBike consortium and plans to add two stations soon.
ValleyBike's bikes and stations are jointly owned by its members, which include nine municipalities plus the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A private vendor, Drop Mobility, handles day-to-day operations.
ValleyBike went out of service for 2023 and part of 2024 after its previous operator abruptly went out of business, but the system reopened under a new contract with Drop Mobility last summer.
