Honolulu’s Bikeshare Program, Biki
Bob Greenberg
Rideshare Enthusiast
For 62-year-old Bob Greenberg, who spends most of his weekdays at a computer, exercise didn’t make the daily to-do list. That changed in 2017 when a “Biki Stop” showed up near his Chinatown apartment. Two years and hundreds of rides later, he’s dropped 50 pounds and cut 90 percent of his driving. “My health and happiness index has skyrocketed,” Greenberg says, who reports that his wife rides too. “We have this rule — if we can’t get there on Biki, it’s not worth going.” Greenberg isn’t alone. By June 2018, a year after Biki’s debut on O‘ahu, users racked up 1.1 million rides, 65 percent of those by Hawai‘i residents. About half of the riders surveyed said the bikes helped them exercise more and drive less. Over a quarter said they lost weight. In just two years, Honolulu’s Biki ranks as the sixth most used bikeshare system in the nation, behind cities such as Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
Photos courtesy of (clock-wise from top left): Bikeshare Hawai‘i, Olivier Koenig, Li Yang on Unsplash, Rafael Bergstrom, Philip Racsa