Winston-Salem Debuts New Bike Share Program

Winston-Salem residents now have a new way to move around town. On Friday, the city and community partners rolled out the Zagster bike share program, just ahead of the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic.

The program offers a total of 50 cruiser-style bikes available for rent at ten stations around the city, according to Matthew Burczyk with the Winston-Salem Department of Transportation.

"We've tried to locate them in popular areas that have good infrastructure in place - along trails, along streets with bike infrastructure, in the downtown area. So we're really trying to meet the needs of the people who would be using it," he says.

In big cities, bike shares are often taxpayer-funded, but this is a public-private partnership. Richard Rauck, chair of the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic, says the program is made possible by the city, the National Cycling Center, and a group of sponsors. He says that for sustainability, it made sense to engage local businesses downtown as well as other philanthropists.

New technology on the bikes will allow for certain conveniences like dockless locking, meaning riders can take a bike for a spin and stop somewhere mid-trip.

Winston-Salem is the second North Carolina city to implement a bike share system. Charlotte was the first.