Free Program Peddles Smart Alternatives
Anybody want a ride?
It was a standing offer to everyone Spokane businessman Jeff Winikoff came across.
Hard to miss, clad in work clothes and pumping his purple pedals, Winikoff worked the streets hoping to get locals jazzed about using free bikes.
The rejuvenated junkers, now available downtown, aren’t for folks to keep, mind you, just ride.
About 50 of the one-speed bikes made their way - with the help of pedaling volunteers - to the city center Wednesday as the Lilac Community Bicycles program made its debut.
“People need to get out of their cars,” said bicycling enthusiast Winikoff. “They can use these bikes to get any place downtown.”
“This is just another way we can take back our streets,” said program proponent Gerald Schuldt, owner of a downtown bicycle store.
On bikes, people will pay more attention to their surroundings, organizers say. They’ll be tempted to ride from shop to shop, supporting downtown businesses. They’ll be squeezing in some exercise, too.
The program,using donated bikes, gives people who don’t have cars or can’t afford the bus an alternative means of transportation.
It’s new to Spokane, but not the country.
More than 60 U.S. cities, including Missoula, Madison, Wisc., and Boulder, Colo., offer folks free use of hundreds of bikes.
Originally launched in Portland two years ago, that city’s “Yellow Bike” program now has more than 800 two-wheelers available.
Easily spotted by their purple paint jobs, the Spokane bicycles sport a friendly warning sticker reminding bikers to be responsible, law-abiding and leave the bike for the next user.
Just look around for them. The bikes are available to anyone who wants to ride.
Some will disappear, organizers concede, but they won’t be considered stolen.
“You can’t steal something that’s free,” Schuldt said.
To Margaret Watson and her pals at the Spokane Bicycle Club, the bikes are a great way to promote their favorite pastime.
“This will give people choices,” she said. “If I was down here on foot and had to get somewhere in a hurry, I’d hop on one. It’s great for everybody.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo