On Thursday, Philadelphia's long wait for a bike-share system came to an end with the launch of the 60-station, 600-bike Indego system, which is set to expand in the near future. At the kickoff, volunteers and officials -- including Mayor Michael Nutter -- rode about half of those bikes to their docking stations.
I got to talk to most of the movers and shakers who helped come to fruition. Even more fun, I got to ride with Mayor Nutter's platoon of Indego-ers to a station near City Hall.
The pricing system of Indego is what sets it apart. Instead of a yearly fee with trips capped at 30 or 45 minutes before extra fees kick in, which is the most popular subscription option offered by most other systems, Indego is going with a fee of $15 per month for unlimited one-hour per trips. This allows people to avoid the larger upfront cost of an annual fee, and subscribers who, say, only want to ride during warmer weather can also save some money. Another option is IndegoFlex, which provides a year of access to the system for a base fee of $10, with a per-trip fee of $4 for rides up to one hour long.
Indego is the largest bike-share system in the country that uses BCycle bikes and stations. It's going to be a great addition to Philly, which has the largest bike commute mode share of any American city with more than 1 million people.
