At $85 a year, a full-price annual membership for Pronto Cycle Share is one of the more affordable transportation methods in Seattle. That price point, however, still serves as a barrier to many to take advantage of unlimited rides of 30 minutes or less within the 500-bike, 50-station system, which includes Capitol Hill and First Hill.
But new partnerships between Pronto and several local affordable housing providers are designed to eliminate that obstacle and make the popular bike-share program accessible to low-income community members.
Bellwether Housing — which owns and manages 30 properties serving approximately 3,000 residents across the city, including six buildings in Capitol Hill, five in First Hill and one in Judkins Park — has joined Capitol Hill Housing and its 47 properties and 2,000 residents as entities partnering with Pronto to offer heavily discounted memberships.
Those discounts are based on their residents’ income in comparison to the area median income (AMI). For those at or below 80 percent of the AMI, the individual cost is $40, at or below 50 percent is $30 and at or below 30 percent is $20.
Providing organizations pay a one-time $115 enrollment fee per building to enroll in the program.
By fostering these relationships, Pronto shifts the burden of qualifying participants for the program over to organizations that have already done that legwork.
“Essentially, we are letting affordable housing providers pre-qualify individuals for reduced rate membership,” said Pronto executive director Holly Houser.
Without a public subsidy to cover discounts, Houser said collaborating with affordable housing providers was one of the simplest ways to make the bike share more accessible to more members of the community.
“This is just sort of the beginning of a much larger initiative to make sure that bike-share is affordable to all,” Houser said, “and we decided, you know, let us start by taking advantage of the organizations out there that are already serving the populations that we want to reach.”
Improving accessibility
Pronto had already offered discounted memberships to residents of Capitol Hill Housing over the last few months, but the program had yet to reach a large number of residents: Only 34 had been sold when the Bellwether partnership was announced.
Houser stressed that the program is still in its infancy: “I think it will be a program that sort of continues to evolve based on need and based on what we figure out works best.”
While the discounted offerings haven’t been around long, the response from those who have enrolled has been positive.
“The people who have taken advantage of it love it,” said Elliott Swanson, resident services manager at Capitol Hill Housing.
Swanson said his organization is always looking for ways to support its residents in engaging in healthy behaviors that support the environment, and that he’d like to see more people using the program in the future.
The partnership puts the bike-share within reach for many residents who wouldn’t be able to access it otherwise, Swanson said: “Without the discount, the cost burden is pretty substantial.”
Thus far, Swanson said he’s seen people mostly use the bikes to run errands and less so to get to and from work, but that the organization is looking at new ways of marketing the program to residents as it moves past the early phase of implementation.
Bellwether resident services manager Ray Padilla said his organization tries to make a variety of local, community resources accessible and available to residents. In turn, partnering with Pronto made sense.
“Many of our residents live and work in Seattle and are often challenged with lack of parking, parking fees and other conditions that come with commuting or taking transit,” Padilla said in an email. “Also, many residents we serve don’t drive or even own a car. By partnering with Pronto, our residents are able to become members and have another alternative to commuting or simply to take a bike ride on a nice day.”
Future expansion
Padilla said he expects that many living in units near current Pronto locations will sign up for a membership, and the hope is that Pronto will expand to other areas, like the Rainier Valley and Northgate, to serve even more of their residents.
“We would love for as many residents to sign up for this opportunity as possible,” Padilla said. “Our goal is to get the residents the information and make sure they have what they need to make a choice and that they will choose a Pronto membership.”
Expanding the number of bike rack locations is something Houser recognizes as a way to address the issues of inequity moving forward.
“Equitable access is not just an economic issue,” Houser said. “It’s also a geographical issue and how do we make sure that there’s stations in the places that folks need to use them.”
As for the future of the program, Houser said Pronto is currently in the final stages of reaching an agreement with Catholic Housing Services of Western Washington to expand the bike share’s membership even further. That entity owns and manages approximately 2,100 housing units at 50 properties across the Puget Sound region.
“We’re very much just at the beginning of this program,” Houser said.
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