LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Life, as amazing as it is in Colorado, is not cheap. One solution for some trying to stretch a buck, is to swap a vehicle ride for two wheels.
Just steps away from the colorful Artline, a bike and pedestrian path in Lakewood, is Lamar Station Crossing, an affordable housing community.
On Wednesday, residents were all smiles as they gained access to e-bikes to give them more freedom and ability to roll to errands and the places they love to visit.
“It’s something new and something I never had before. I feel like a little girl with a new toy.” said resident Maria.
At the Metro West Housing Solutions community, which provides affordable housing in the Denver metro area, Lamar Station Crossing residents can now check out one of 10 new e-bikes provided by Denver-based Boomerang Fleets.
“This is sort of the next wave of shared mobility. These are all privately shared unlike the publicly shared bikes, so only residents living in this particular apartment community have access to this fleet of bikes,” said Kenny Fischer, Boomerang chief operating officer.
“These are called Boomerang bikes because they're meant to imply that you can take them out as long as you bring them back, and then when they come back, they're automatically docked and recharged for other residents to be able to use, whether it's to go to work, school, run errands, anything that they might need mobility for," he added.
“We were really looking at demand and where there might be more interest in e-bikes, but there aren't other current programs that are filling that need. We're partnering with some affordable housing communities and other apartment complexes who are interested in a docked e-bike system,” said David Sabados, spokesperson for Regional Air Quality Council. “Residents just download an app so the apartment complex understands who is checking out what bikes to make sure everything gets returned and they're able to use it completely free of charge.”
Each bike has a basket on the front and back and the easy access to the ArtLine will help Lamar Station Crossing residents roll to shops, stores and restaurants.
During the roll out event, residents stopped by to check out the dedicated bike room and learn how to operate the Boomerang Fleet bikes.
“We live not too far from a lot of convenience stores, so taking one of these to the closest store is very helpful, especially on rainy days when our car is not working. It’s something very convenient,” said Abraham, a Lamar Station Crossing resident. “I’m just excited. My kids have their own bikes and now I’ll have one to use, so we can run around and go on the trails now.”
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The secured bike room comes with information on how to operate the bikes.
“This is about as perfect of a bike room as you can ask for and it's nice. It's enclosed, and it gives residents a place to access the bikes,” said Fischer. “All the bikes are on their docking stations being charged. There's information on how to use the bikes, how to check out them, how to pause your ride and return them and but what's nice is it gives a sense of pride and ownership to the residents.”
Along with the accessibility benefit, the program aims to help reduce pollutants in the air.
“Based on similar efforts, we find that when we offer e-bikes in this way, every rider will reduce – on average – about 24 gas powered trips a month,” added Sabados. “And we say if everyone in the metro area just skipped two trips a week, we would largely solve a lot of our air quality issues. 24 trips a month is a lot, and so, we're really glad to be helping provide that access for them.”
The residents at Lamar Station Crossing on Wednesday testing out the bikes and doing laps in the parking lot, couldn’t get enough of new wheels.“We just want them to have another amenity,” said Amy DeKnikker, Chief housing officer at Metro West Housing Solutions.
"I was just speaking to one of our residents who said ‘I’m too old for this’ and someone else came back who had just gotten on and said ‘I feel like a kid again’ and the other woman said ‘maybe I will do it then.’"
That sentiment, of feeling like a kid again, was shared by several of the residents.
“I feel motivated. I feel active, something new for the day,” said Maria, who added that she couldn’t wait to ride one of the bikes to Sloan’s Lake.
She shared advice for the other residents or anyone else considering hopping on two wheels for an adventure.
“Try it, enjoy! Take the fear out and try it. I was like that. I was just going to come and look but they’re awesome so I ended up trying.”
The program was made possible by a grant and the Regional Air Quality Council hopes to expand the program to other affordable housing communities next year.
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