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By: Sara Khalil
Director of Operations
In April of 2015, Pittsburgh did not have bike share. I sat in my environmental justice class at the University of Pittsburgh convincing my classmates in a final presentation that bike share in Pittsburgh would change the world. I was absolutely blowing steam at that time, but turns out, I was right.
In May of 2015, I joined a team of less than 10 individuals who launched the first bike share in Pittsburgh, called Healthy Ride. Everyone wanted to know, “What is bike share?”
Bike share is, to me, freedom. It’s independence. It’s fun. It’s for those who care. It’s for those who know there is more to life than ourselves. Bike share is an industry that values community, something that has shaped my life forever moving forward.
When we launched, I was a part time field team member. I worked for $10.50 per hour moving bikes in a van from station to station. We started to see real life customers at the stations. I knew bike share had the potential to transform Pittsburgh. People could now choose if they wanted to drive or bike.
Until that time, I was riding a $10 bike from craigslist. It was a brown Huffy. I did not own an air pump or chain lube, so that should tell you something about the mechanical state of the bike. Looking back, I had no major issues with it. I only rode a mile or two from Friendship to Oakland most days, and if the weather was bad I’d just catch the free university bus. My transportation plan at that time was, keep it as cheap as possible, and my Huffy allowed me the freedom to stay out past 11pm when the buses stopped running.
By my second year at Bike Share Pittsburgh, I knew we were taking off. We saw 76,286 trips completed by customers. I was moving up in the company, and began dispatching our van around town and responding to our customers. We got a crucial grant to expand our station footprint. Customers began requesting bike share stations in their neighborhoods via an online mapping tool we created. The demand was bigger than the grant award.
In 2017, we innovated the station network by using a small grant award, testing a completely new way of using our hardware, and installing MORE, smaller, stations. We knew small stations weren’t perfect for every situation, but a 16 foot long station gave us the ability to be in more places that our customers needed us. We carved out a new path for others in the industry using this type of technology.
By 2019, our Executive Director envisioned something different for Pittsburghers. Enter the first conversations around an electric bike. At this point, JUMP had an electric model that was out in the streets for a while. Bike designers were beginning to innovate, and think of how we can use electric bikes in the public right of way sustainably. And we had questions. We went out to all of the major bike share designers and asked, “how do you plan to charge these?”. Turns out, very few hardware providers were thinking about it, so we pushed for it.
In 2020, the entire world closed down on March, 16th. Bike Share saw little usage, but it was still utilized, primarily by essential workers. Below is a graph of ridership duration changes during the “red zone” of the pandemic. People were taking longer trips on a bike.
By May of 2020, our trip numbers were mirroring 2019 numbers. We figured out ways to keep staff safe, but working. We sanitized so much that year our grips got sticky and all needed replacement. By August of 2020, we expanded a program with the University of Pittsburgh to allow all students and faculty to ride free for 30 minutes. Bike share was becoming many folks' top choice of transportation.
This moment in time gave us the opportunity to think about our future. Where did we want to go? Who did we want to serve?
In 2021, we decided to sunset Healthy Ride, for a new system we would call POGOH. The decision to transition was not taken lightly. We had invested public dollars into Healthy Ride, and to sunset it would mean Healthy Ride equipment would no longer be rented. But, we needed to make the shift to create a sustainable model for ebike charging moving forward. POGOH gave us the ability to add ebikes to our system, and the ability to charge these ebikes at the station. We were also able to accommodate shorter riders, with a smaller wheel size that provided more flexibility.
In 2022 and 2023, we removed Healthy Ride and installed POGOH stations across the city. We showed the industry that it is possible to transition systems, and do it gracefully. We purchased equipment, and our own staff assembled it in a warehouse. We operated both systems for about two weeks during the transition. We all made it, somehow. And our customers showed us how much they appreciated the introduction of the ebike in Pittsburgh. In 2023, we saw trip numbers double. We saw greater diversity in riders. We saw adoption in communities that previously were not interested in “a big heavy bike”. Ebikes enable more users to complete trips on a bike.
As we’ve grown over the years, we’ve managed to maintain long term employees, build local partnerships, innovate in our industry, lobby for federal and state resources for public transportation, and invest in communities we live in, and serve. POGOH isn’t just about bike trips. We are local community ambassadors. We are in our city fighting for change, change that will benefit everyone who calls Pittsburgh home.
As I write this today, April of 2025, we are still the industry leader for sustainable ebike charging, with 20 electric charging stations installed in the public right of way. In larger markets, like New York City, operators have technicians swapping batteries using dozens of cargo vans per day. In Pittsburgh, we swap approximately 20 batteries in an entire day. Our vision for a sustainable bike share operation is in motion and we are sharing our knowledge with other operators.
We plan to add 40+ charging stations this year, which means over half of our network will charge an ebike the moment you dock it. Let us know where you need POGOH next: Station Expansion Suggestion.
I hope to celebrate with some of you at the 10 year anniversary party, May 31st, at Trace brewing.
And please remember to be kind to one another. We are nothing without our community.
-Sara