Beginning this morning at 10am, Parkwide Bike Rentals & Tours will open at five city park locations, offering renters the chance to rent and bike within a park, or between city parks.
Visitors to the parks can rent from a fleet of bicycles that includes a tandem, 2 and 4-seater surrey bikes and even a “Burley Cub” tow seat for little ones.
After renting, riders can use the bikes within the park or ride onto a Parkwide rental site in another park and drop off.
There will be two rental locations in Golden Gate Park – behind the bandshell in the Music Concourse and at John F. Kennedy Drive and Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive (which is right near the bandshell so I confess this is sort of confusing).
The other three other locations are at Justin Herman Plaza, Fort Mason Center and Union Square Plaza. According to Streetsblog SF, the JFK and Tea Garden Drive will only be open on weekends while the bandshell location will open 7 days a week. The Marina Green and Union Square locations are expected to open in November and December, respectively.
Rental prices range from $9 per hour for a basic bike up to $35 for a four-person surrey bike.
The official launch of the rental program was this morning at 10am and was due to feature Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisor Eric Mar AND Academy of Sciences celebrity, albino alligator Claude. What business Claude has around bicycles I don’t know, but let’s hope he at least got a ride in a fancy surrey bike. 😉
UPDATE: No Claude to be found at the event, but Streetsblog SF has some pics of a mayor in a surrey (but no fringe on top 🙁 ).
Sarah B.
While it will be convenient for tourists and those wishing to ride between parks, Golden Gate Bike & Skate is a bargain by comparison ($3 hr. kids/$5 hr. mtn. bikes) and is just a couple of blocks away from the Music Concourse, on Fulton. http://www.goldengateparkbikeandskate.com/pricing.html
So this is like a bike sharing scheme but with very few locations and at ten times the price.
Let’s hope we can get the real thing sooner rather than later.