Zagster Expands Cleveland Bike Share Program

CLEVELAND, OH--(Marketwired - Oct 17, 2014) - Zagster, a company that provides turnkey bike sharing services, today announced that due to high demand for its existing service as well as funding from new sponsors, it is expanding bike share service beginning today to three new Cleveland neighborhoods: Downtown, Tremont and University Circle. This expansion occurs just five weeks after the launch, represents doubling of station count and brings the total number of bikes to 50, a near 50 percent increase.

"It is exciting to see the increased private investment in bringing the pilot Zagster Bike Share Program to more communities," said Jacob VanSickle, executive director of Bike Cleveland. "We're continuing to get positive feedback from riders and look forward to utilizing the data from the system make the case for growing a bike share system city-wide in Cleveland."

New locations include:

• The Downtown station on West 6^th Street is sponsored by Barely House Cleveland;
• The Tremont station, located in front of Civilization Café on West 11^th Street, is sponsored by Tremont West Development Corporation, Council Member Joe Cimperman, Platform Brewery and Civilization Café/City Roast Coffee;
• The University Circle station is at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Cornell Road is sponsored by Courtyard by Marriott Cleveland University Circle.

"The initial launch did exactly what we wanted it to do -- drive awareness and spur additional interest in membership and sponsorship," said Timothy Ericson, co-founder and CEO of Zagster. "We're thrilled that we can expand to additional areas of the city to make the program more available to more residents this year while we work on our expansion plans for next year."

These 50 bikes are available on-demand at nine locations for up to a 24-hour period. Pricing begins at $3 per hour with a cap at $24 for up to 24 hours. A $15 monthly or $75 annual fee includes unlimited rides under one hour, with additional hours being charged at $3 per hour to a maximum of $24. Bikes can be taken one way or round trip, but must be returned to a Zagster bike location. A map of locations is available online at www.zagster.com/Cleveland.

Residents can access the bikes by creating a Zagster account via the Zagster Mobile App, (available for iPhone and Android), or online at www.zagster.com/Cleveland. To rent a bike, riders simply login to their account, enter the unique ID number of the bike they wish to use and the app provides an access code for the lock box is provided. Riders can use the code throughout the duration of their rental to lock and unlock the bike anywhere along their trip. Once the bike is returned to a Zagster location, the touch of a button ends the rental and releases the bike for the next rider.

New sponsors join the initial partners including: Hingetown, Platform Beer Company, Ohio City Incorporated, Cleveland Metroparks, Superior Viaduct Lofts, Bar25, LLC./Market Garden Brewery and Skyline Financial Group.

Zagster is developing a national footprint of bike sharing programs in partnership with real estate/multi-family companies, businesses, hotel chains and universities, all of whom are looking to provide value added services and benefits to residents, guests or area employees.

Currently, Zagster has hundreds of bikes deployed in more than 30 cities/towns in more than 20 states with thousands of members having taken tens of thousands of rides. Zagster has partnered with leading brands, including General Motors, Hyatt, Related Companies, Novare Group, Quicken Loans, Yale University, Duke University and many others.

About Zagster
Founded in Philadelphia in 2007 as CityRyde and now headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Zagster is one of the nation's first bike sharing companies. Zagster is uniquely focused on contracting with property managers, hotels, businesses, and universities across North America to make bike sharing programs available to tenants, employees, guests and students. This highly efficient and unique model allows Zagster to offer services in areas that traditional city-wide bike sharing systems can't reach. More information about Zagster is available online at http://www.Zagster.com.