Four-day event to focus on bikeshare trends, best practices, and building equitable bikeshare systems to bring two wheels to all communities

Today, the North American Bikeshare Association (NABSA) and the Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) announce plans to bring the biggest and brightest minds in bikeshare from around the world to Portland, Oregon on September 4-7, 2018. The organizations will host the Fifth Annual North American Bikeshare Association conference in Portland, a city that was recently named the top bike-friendly city by Bicycling Magazine because more than seven percent of daily commuters choose bikes.

According to NABSA, the 2018 conference is an opportunity to spotlight the equity-focused work of bikeshare systems across North America, including the work of  BBSP – a grant-funded collaboration led by the City of Philadelphia that has led the charge to make bikeshare easy, accessible and affordable for all people. Its commitment to understanding and overcoming the barriers that keep people from using bikeshare has demonstrated a visionary approach to changing lives and building happier and healthier communities with bicycles.

“It’s exciting to follow up the first-ever Better Bike Share Conference in Philadelphia last June with next year’s event in Portland, Oregon,” says Aaron Ritz, acting director of Better Bike Share Partnership and NABSA board member. “As the leading industry body for bikesharing, NABSA has been an excellent partner, sharing the successes and lessons learned from the last three years of work by the Better Bike Share Partnership. Next year’s conference is another great opportunity to show how bikeshare leads the way in implementing equitable transportation.”

The Portland Bureau of Transportation welcomes 2018 conference attendees to explore the city streets and make its bikeshare program, BIKETOWN, their main mode of transportation over the course of the conference. Earlier this year, the city hosted a free ride day on July 19 to celebrate the first anniversary of BIKETOWN and the transformation that Portland has seen as a result of one year of bikeshare.

“We are thrilled to host the 2018 North American Bikeshare Association annual conference,” said Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat. “We are looking forward to showcasing BIKETOWN, one of the largest smart-bike bikeshare systems in North America, and Adaptive BIKETOWN, our path-breaking program to make bikeshare accessible to people with disabilities. We are also excited to learn about what other cities and the industry are doing to make bikeshare more convenient, sustainable and equitable.”

The announcement of the joint conference comes fresh off the heels of NABSA’s 4^th annual meeting of the minds held in Montreal in September. The three-day event drew hundreds of bikeshare systems, international municipalities, nonprofit organizations and industry leaders together to facilitate conversations around dockless systems and the future of the bikeshare industry – elevating the role of bikeshare in achieving a vision of healthy communities with shared mobility options.

The fifth annual North American Bikeshare Association Conference will take place on Tuesday, September 4 to Friday, September 7 at the Hilton Portland located at 921 SW 6^th Ave, Portland, Oregon.