Bikes For Rent In The Downtown Area

Journal story....

How bright orange bikes could help Middletown residents and visitors enjoy downtown in a new way

MIDDLETOWN —
A business owner and the Middletown Visitors Bureau hope a new venture downtown attracts more people to the district.

Spoken Bicycles, 1201 Central Ave., started renting bikes on Friday in hopes of taking advantage of the revitalized downtown and the nearby bike path by the Great Miami River.

Spoken has 10 bikes for rent — six adult and four youth — and each rental will include a helmet and a lock, said owner Otto Bohn. The bikes will rent for $10 per hour for the first hour and $4 for each hour after that.

Each bike is The goal of the rental program, Bohn said, is to make Middletown “a destination for cycling.”He said the program is geared toward residents who may not own a bike or out of town guests who want to tour the Middletown area.
Mary Huttlinger, executive director of the Middletown Visitors Bureau, foresees a time when people rent bikes in Middletown, then ride then along the bike path that eventually will stretch 99 miles from Hamilton to Troy. She called the bike path “a great asset” that is underused.The visitors bureau invested $2,700 out of its capital budget in the bike rental program. She said the bike shop will have to complete quarterly reports on the progress of the program for the next two years.painted bright orange to make them recognizable in the community and to make them easy to find if they’re not returned, Bohn said. Each bike will have the store’s logo and the logo of Middletown Visitors Bureau.

So, admittedly, the bike path has been underutilized so far. When the story came out concerning the new building and the cost of rehabbing the bike path when it caved in a few years ago, we mentioned that it was a possibility that the bike path would never see the activity to justify the cost. Is this an indicator that this is a safe assumption? Just wondering about the outcome of this idea for bike rentals in the downtown area. Is there enough interest in renting a bike and riding it downtown to make this idea a success? TBD.

It would appear the downtown dreamers are trying anything and everything to lure people down to their little artzy utopia. It appears there is work to be done to achieve that goal. It is still a relatively inactive part of the city. The focus and theme remain off topic when considering the demographics of the city. The downtown believers are insistent that they have the right ideas. Wonder how much longer it will take with the current theme and how many businesses will open and close for them to change course.