Imagine a fleet of well-tuned, self-service bicycles available 24/7 in locations all around Santa Barbara, enabling commuters to jump on a bike for a quick trip around town, run errands, or connect to transit.

The newly released South Coast Bike Share Feasibility Study, which imagines and analyzes this concept in detail, will be presented at the Santa Barbara City Transportation and Circulation Committee, 5:30 p.m. June 21, at Santa Barbara City Hall.

Bike shares, already a staple in some 700 cities around the globe, allow users to temporarily rent bicycles from strategically located spots, returning them at other spots for their convenience.

These public networks of bikes are a key part of a city’s transit system, as they increase equity for all road-users, link communities, and let people conveniently use a healthy form of transit that is low-impact in terms of congestion and pollution.

The study, available in full at sbbike.org/bikesharestudyrelease (click on the study cover), shows Santa Barbara is a prime location for such a network and sets forward the first vision of a thriving share system locally.

The study finds bike share in Santa Barbara would enjoy high participation rates nearly year round. The most desirable locations are downtown, on the SBCC campus, in Isla Vista, and on the UCSB campus.

High-usage rates are projected throughout the South Coast, focused around those key nodes.

The study supports developing a unified and compatible bike share system that would allow for interchanging bikes between Santa Barbara and Isla Vista with potential future connections in Goleta and Carpinteria.

A robust system, the study finds, would be complementary to transit, to Santa Barbara’s new Zip Car share service, and to ride-share services, and would provide point-to-point transportation options for short trips.

“Between the study’s detailed research, public workshops, and multiple reviews with the Bike Share Study Commission, we are all proud to be part of this needed assessment,” said Ed France, SBBIKE executive director.

The study was funded by the UCSB Office of Sustainability, the Santa Barbara City College Foundation, and the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition.

New technology and funding structures, detailed in the feasibility study, make building bike share systems easier and increasingly affordable.

The study’s market analysis examines ways to reduce installation costs and avoid other potentially prohibitive requirements faced by early adopters of bike share systems.

For example, modern bike share systems require far fewer (or even no) on-street or sidewalk kiosks, and can instead rely on existing bike racks, public space, and technology built into the bicycles themselves.

Smart phone apps help users find bicycles, get routes to their destinations, and locate spots to leave the bicycles, which are only intended for short, one-way transportation.

— Holly Starley Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition.