SWAMPSCOTT — Despite the cold weather, the town is piloting a dockless bike sharing system, which is aimed at providing residents with an alternative transportation option.
Peter Kane, director of community development, said the town is testing a program from Ant Bicycle, a Boston-based company, which initially contacted him in October. There are currently three bicycles from Ant in Swampscott, but there will soon be more, he said.
“What’s different about this bike share system is it is dockless so the bikes — you don’t have to return them to a specific location,” Kane said. “(You) can put them at any local bike rack.”
Ant Bicycle said in a press release that their program provides a short distance solution and “represents a healthier and greener lifestyle.”
Kane said the three primary locations for the bicycles will be at the town’s train station, the Swampscott Public Library and on Humphrey Street — the company will periodically redistribute the bikes to those three places when they are not in use.
Kane said the system works through a cell phone — residents rent and start the use of the bike through their phone through the “Ant Bicycle” app, pay $1 for each hour of use, and after they’re done with it, they deactivate the bike with the app, which locks the wheels.
Residents can leave the bike anywhere in a publicly accessible space. If someone were to ride their bike home, for example, that person would have to leave it on a sidewalk near a sign, rather than on the side of their home, which would be detected by the app as private property, Kane said.
Kane said the hope with the program is that people utilize the bicycles as short distance connectors. For instance, he said, with the program, people are able to take the bicycles and ride them to the commuter station, and then later grab one from the commuter rail and ride it home rather than drive home.
“We certainly want to see (Ant Bicycles) succeed but we also want to see residents take advantage of using the bikes even for short bike rides,” Kane said.
Kane said he would like to see the bike share system expand in town, but not necessarily exclusive to one provider. He said the bike share system doesn’t cost the town anything and doesn’t require the installation of any infrastructure, unlike some other communities which have a dock system.
“We’re still trying to feel out what this means and how it’s going to work because it’s still pretty new,” Kane said. “We hope to expand this to reduce dependency on the vehicle and use it for these short trips.”
