Several students at Ohio State University are working to bring bike sharing to the Bexley area as a new method of transportation for students.
CoGo is a bike sharing company that has 46 individual stations in the Columbus area and over 300 bikes in its inventory. Bikes are kept at stations in prominent areas around town and can be rented by anyone who has purchased a membership.
Memberships can be bought per day for $8, three days for $18, and an annual pass costs $75 dollars. According to Evan Hertzog, a student working on the project, CoGo has worked out options for university student group rates, although this has not been discussed yet.
With a membership, a student would be able to use a bike for the allotted amount of time as long as the bike is checked into a station at least every 30 minutes. For example, a student with a three day membership would be able to borrow a bike from a station an unlimited number of times within the 72 hour window as long as the bike is checked into a station at least every 30 minutes.
“CoGo provides a choice that is faster than walking, more adventurous than a taxicab, and better for the environment than driving, without users needing to worry about owning, maintaining, and storing their own bikes,” said Hertzog.
The students bringing this service to Bexley are part group of 16 City & Regional Planning students from Ohio State. They’re working to bring 26 new CoGo stations to the Columbus area, with the funding for the project coming from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission grant. Four of the proposed stations will be located in Bexley, and they will link with pre-existing CoGo locations that stretch into the main part of Columbus.
Hertzog says students can use this new transportation system to bike along the Alum Creek trail or ride all the way to Downtown Columbus to visit Topiary Park and the Columbus Museum of Art. This would also be a green alternative to COTA transportation for students without a car.
The locations of the stations has not yet been finalized, and CoGo wants to get residents of Bexley and students at Capital involved in choosing them. At the moment, the group has three locations that they feel would work well; near Bexley City Hall, near Johnson’s Ice Cream or East Gateway along Main Street, and Jeffrey Mansion. The locations must be accessible and close to the road and preferably near an intersection.
The plan for expanding CoGo into Bexley has not yet been finalized, but the group has their final presentation to the City of Bexley on April 18, and the final report will be completed on April 20. The stations will most likely be installed sometime in 2018.
If anyone has ideas for a location of a station or a comment or question, they are encouraged to email cogoexpand@gmail.com.
