PBOT News Release: Motivate and BIKETOWN Launch September #womenwhobike Campaign

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Portland Bureau of Transportation
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News media contact:

Dylan Rivera
Portland Bureau of Transportation
(503) 577-7534
dylan.rivera@portlandoregon.gov
@pbotinfo

 

PBOT News Release:

Motivate and BIKETOWN Launch September #womenwhobike Campaign

Campaign Celebrating Women’s Bike Month Will Encourage Women to Give Bike Share a Try with Special Events Across the Nation

Participating systems include BIKETOWN in Portland, Citi Bike in New York, Hubway in Boston, and Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C

(September 7, 2017) BIKETOWN, Portland’s bike share program, is celebrating Women’s Bike Month 2017 by kicking off its second annual #WomenWhoBike campaign during the month of September.

BIKETOWN’s celebration is part of a nation-wide campaign across the bike share systems operated by Motivate.

To celebrate the growing number of women bike riders and bike share enthusiasts in Portland, BIKETOWN is ringing in Women’s Bike Month 2017 with a variety of promotions and events.

BIKETOWN is giving new and experienced riders the chance to partake in a variety of scheduled events, bike workshops, giveaways, and local rides, including a Women Who Bike Info Fair at Holladay Park this Saturday, a “Take Life by the handlebars” ride for beginners along the waterfront, a ride to the September 24th Sunday Parkways celebration, and more. The Info Fair and end-of-month wrap party at Wildfang will include opportunities to win free BIKETOWN Day Passes and other prizes such as a Nutcase Helmet or Filmed by Bike tickets. A full list of BIKETOWN events for Women’s Bike Month is available here.

For the first time ever, BIKETOWN will offer a one-month membership for $20, allowing interested riders to try out the bikes with unlimited rides and up to 90 minutes of ride time per day for the month of September only.

Keep an eye on BIKETOWN’s social media channels and the #WomenWhoBike hashtag for stories and photos featuring female riders and women who regularly bike and use bike share.

In Portland, women account for about 32 percent of bike trips (compared to 29 percent across the nation). For PBOT, BIKETOWN is an important way of making biking in Portland more accessible to people of all genders.

"Women already make up a third of Portland’s bike ridership, but we want to see that number go higher,” said Transportation Director Leah Treat. “For me, BIKETOWN is a key part of getting more women on bikes, which is why I’m very happy to be celebrating Women’s Bike Month. I would encourage all of my fellow woman bike riders to take this opportunity to ride BIKETOWN. You’ll love it!”

"This September, we are proud to celebrate the role that women riders play in making bike share a crucial component of every modern city," said Jay Walder, President and CEO of Motivate. "It is our most important mission to make bike share accessible, equitable, and safe-- not just in September but every day of the year. While we celebrate female ridership, we recognize that more must be done across the biking industry to encourage and empower women to take to two wheels."


About PBOT

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is the steward of the City’s transportation system, and a community partner in shaping a livable city. We plan, build, manage and maintain an effective and safe transportation system that provides access and mobility.  www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation


About BIKETOWN

BIKETOWN is Portland’s bike share system with 1,000 bikes available to ride from one point to another for a small fee. BIKETOWN is a partnership between the City of Portland’s Portland Bureau of Transportation and Nike, the program’s sole title sponsor. BIKETOWN is operated by Motivate. It uses innovative new “smart bikes” which will make it easy to find, rent and park a BIKETOWN bike. BIKETOWN is designed to be affordable and accessible, encouraging even more Portlanders to ride and allowing visitors to experience the city by bike. Portland joins over 60 US cities, including New York, Chicago, Washington DC, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Boise and Austin and 500 cities worldwide that have popular, safe and successful bike share systems. biketownpdx.com

About Motivate

Motivate, the global leader in bike share, operates tens of thousands of bikes across four continents. Led by an executive team with deep experience at the highest levels of public transportation and technology, the company is relentlessly focused on innovation and has a proven and sustainable business model to manage complex operations and logistics. A vertically integrated company, Motivate controls the full technology stack, enabling us to lead on the design and deployment of the next generation of bike share technology. Motivate works in close partnership with cities to implement bike share systems that meet the unique needs of the places in which we operate. Motivate systems, including Citi Bike in New York, Divvy in Chicago, Capital Bikeshare in the D.C. area, Hubway in the Boston area, BIKETOWN in Portland, and Ford GoBike in the San Francisco Bay Area, are responsible for over 80 percent of bike share trips taken annually. To learn more please visit the Motivate newsroom at https://www.motivateco.com/news.