Breeze Bike Share presented by Hulu turns two on November 12. Since the City of Santa Monica launched Los Angeles County’s first bike share system in 2015, 80,000 active subscribers have taken more than 628,000 trips, riding more than 1.3 million miles – equivalent to pedaling around the world 53 times. With generous sponsorship from Hulu, the program is self-sustaining and requires no additional subsidy from the City after the first two years of operation.
Last Saturday, November 4, 25 community members joined a five-mile ride marking Breeze’s birthday with Mayor Ted Winterer as part of his monthly Ride with the Mayor. There, he shared, “Every time you opt for a bike trip over a car trip, you are reducing carbon emissions, reducing gridlock, and boosting your overall health and wellbeing. Breeze makes biking easy with a station in every pocket of town.”
People Breeze for fun or for business, to and from the Metro Expo Line, along the beach bike path, during lunch, and to run errands. The green Breeze bikes are now a staple of transportation options in Santa Monica, and help achieve communitywide congestion and air emissions goals. Since launching, the program has prevented more than 1,166,300 pounds of carbon from entering the atmosphere.
In the coming year, the City is looking to expand the program by adding new bikes and integrating Breeze with neighboring bike share systems in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and UCLA. Once implemented, the sub-regional bike share system will allow users to travel between systems with their one existing account. The system area will provide members access to 830 bikes and more than 139 stations throughout the Westside.
“The regional network will expand access to the system,” says Kyle Kozar, the City’s Bike Share Coordinator. “With one account, users will be able to travel farther throughout the Westside and not have to worry about out-of-system-area fees or extra sign-up processes.”
