KANcycle bike sharing expands into Lindsborg, supporting community health and recreation
Lindsborg locals and visitors alike now have a new way to cruise around Little Sweden USA.
A bike-sharing program through OCCK Transportation known as KANcycle officially launched in the small town this week. Lindsborg city leaders met for a ribbon-cutting and a celebratory "thank you" to partners who helped expand the program across rural Kansas.
KANcycle got its start in June 2019, and now boasts 80 bikes and 16 stations located in Belleville, Beloit, Concordia, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Mankato, Minneapolis, Salina, and now, Lindsborg. The ride-share program aims to provide convenient, affordable access to bicycles as an easy, fun, healthy and eco-friendly means of transportation and recreation.
Lindsborg Mayor Clark Shultz, Community Development Director Jordan Jerkovich and OCCK Director of Mobility Management Michelle Griffon gave remarks at Fredricksen Family Fitness Park, one of three Lindsborg KANcycle locations on June 30.
"This is a fun day," Shultz said. "Our bikes are going to be so awesome for people visiting the town and other people who live here. When they got here, I got out there and rode them that evening. It was so fun."
How KANcycle bike sharing works
In addition to Fredricksen Family Fitness Park, Lindsborg's KANcycle locations are at Bethany College on Valkommen Trail and at Lindsborg City Hall.
Movatic, a shared-mobility software company, manages all aspects of the bike share program, from the technical side of things to maintenance and repairs.
Bikes in the KANcycle program can be found on the Movatic mobile app. Each bike has a unique number that riders enter into the app to unlock the bike. After a rider returns the bike to a designated Movatic Bike Station, the rental ends and the bike is available for the next person.
On the app, you can sign up for an annual membership or participate in a pay-as-you-go system.
Annual memberships are $30 with trips under 1 hour free and student memberships are $20 with trips under 1 hour free. The pay-as-you-go rate is $1.50 for every 30 minutes of riding time.
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KANcycle bikes promote positive community health and recreation
Several community partners in Lindsborg worked together to help bring KANcycle to the town. Among others, Bethany College, OCCK, Lindsborg Community Hospital, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas and the city of Lindsborg had a hand in supporting the expansion.
"Our bike share model definitely works and we get a lot of questions and inquiries from communities all across the state and even the nation," Griffon said.
Jerkovich said he is excited for the community to have a program like KANcycle. In his remarks Friday, he mentioned his adoration for the kind of recreation bicycles provide.
"Just going back to my time studying in Sweden for a year, where I met my wife... we didn't have a car, so we had bikes," Jerkovich said. "We biked everywhere... and that's kind of what everybody did.... you could see right away what all the benefits could be."
The city of Lindsborg utilized American Rescue Plan Act funding for its contribution to the project. Since those funds were support that came on the back end of a public health crisis, Jerkovich said, it seemed fitting to use them to support public health in some capacity.
"It felt like a really natural fit with the bikes," Jerkovich said.
Kendrick Calfee has been a reporter with the Salina Journal since 2022, primarily covering county government and education. You can reach him at kcalfee@gannett.com or on Twitter @calfee_kc.
This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: You can now ride through Lindsborg on KANcycle's ride-share bicycles
