Officials gear up for sharing plan

Rent it. Ride it. Return it.

Boston officials will evaluate that process in the coming months when they discuss implementing a bike-sharing program that could help residents cope with high gas prices and congested city streets.

"We have to find a sustainable transportation option for people, and this can work because of the climate," John Connolly, a Boston city councilor at large and chairman of the council's Committee on Environment and Health, said in a recent interview.

Last month, Connolly called for a hearing to discuss the city's yearlong efforts on the initiative, announced last September when Mayor Thomas M. Menino hired former Olympic cyclist Nicole Freedman as director of bicycling programs.

The program would allow riders to rent from a fleet of bicycles hosted at terminals throughout the city, Connolly said. Different models for such cycling systems are in place throughout the world, and include free programs as well as public or private arrangements that let riders rent bikes by the hour.

That's how some cyclists roll in Washington, D.C., which launched the nation's first European-style bike-sharing program in May. For $40 a year, members have access to a network of bicycles stored at 10 stations throughout the capital.

In Paris, which launched a bike-sharing program last year, city officials plan to maintain about 26,000 cycles at 1,450 stations, which factor out to one station every 300 yards.

As part of his efforts to make Boston into a "world-class biking city," Menino announced plans to create a network of designated bike lanes on Commonwealth Avenue, between the Boston University Bridge and Kenmore Square, and install 250 bike racks across the city, moves that will be completed in the next few weeks, according to Jennifer Mehigan, Menino's spokeswoman.

The city may also add bike lanes to Massachusetts Avenue between Albany Street and Huntington Avenue, Tremont Street along Boston Common, and on American Legion Highway, which runs past Franklin Park, as well as shower facilities and storage areas.

Describing himself as a part-time cyclist, Connolly said the program would "enable people who might otherwise take their car to work to instead take public transportation and have a healthier commute for themselves and the city."

Steve Miller, a board member of the LivableStreets Alliance, a local nonprofit that has pushed for an urban transportation system that balances biking, walking, and driving, said the bike-sharing model was "a brilliant program" in theory.

But he expressed concern that neighboring communities could be cut off from hosting the terminals, which he said may also reduce the city's existing parking spaces.

"You're really going to need to install a lot of these bike stations," he said. "And that's going to require some serious negotiations with the use of limited sidewalk space."

Connolly, meanwhile, said he hopes city officials will gain a better perspective for the program once a hearing is scheduled in the fall.

"The way I see it, if we can bring a shared-bike system to fruition, all the other pro-biking pieces will come along with it," he said. "This can really make Boston the preeminent biking city in the world."