The Commonwealth has pledged a $1.5 million in Fair Share funding to support operating costs and new equipment for the ValleyBike regional bikesharing system in the Connecticut River Valley region.
The funding comes from MassDOT's new Microtransit and Last Mile Transit Grant program. As part of the 2025 supplemental budget, which allocated higher-than-anticipated revenues from the Commonwealth's new "Fair Share" income tax on high-income households, lawmakers set aside $10 million to pay for "microtransit initiatives and last-mile transportation solutions."
The grant demonstrates that "bikeshare is an important part of the transport picture for the Commonwealth, and that the state is interested in supporting it," said Carolyn Misch, the City of Northampton's Director of Planning & Sustainability.
ValleyBike is a municipally-owned bikesharing system that spans a huge service area in Hampshire and Hampden Counties.
ValleyBike's fleet of bikes, all of which are equipped with pedal-assist electric motors, are jointly owned by its members, which include nine cities and towns plus the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Smaller system, bigger challenges
Unlike the Bluebikes system in eastern Massachusetts, ValleyBike serves a more sparsely-populated region, and its operations have historically relied on public subsidy from its host communities.
"ValleyBike doesn't have the ability to get large private sponsorships like Bluebikes in Boston, and so this Fair Share funding puts us on more sure footing financially," Misch said.
In 2023, the company that had been under contract to handle day-to-day operations went out of business, which shut the system down for over a year while Misch and her colleagues sought potential new vendors.
In summer 2024, ValleyBike reopened under a new operating contract with Drop Mobility, a Toronto-based company which also operates bikesharing systems in mid-sized cities like New Orleans, New Haven, Tulsa, and Albany.
Misch says that the first year and a half of operations with Drop Mobility has been a success.
“They've been very responsive, and very flexible too with us as we’ve had to figure out funding sources and make transitions to their new bikes and equipment," said Misch.
Expansion plans
Last fall, ValleyBike expanded to the City of Westfield with three new stations – two in the downtown area, near the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail, plus a dock on the campus of Westfield State University, about 2 miles west of the city center.
Misch says that in addition to covering operations costs, the new Microtransit and Last Mile Transit Grant funding could also help finance the expansion of ValleyBike into additional communities – particularly into smaller towns that have previously balked at the costs of sponsoring a bikesharing station.
Misch said that town officials in Belchertown and Hadley, which both have easy connections to existing stations in Northampton and Amherst via the Mass. Central Rail Trail, have both expressed interest in joining the system.
"There are definitely community members who want those towns to join," said Misch. "We haven’t signed on the dotted line to receive the funding yet, but when we do, we need to sit down as a group to start those conversations."
