Honolulu’s long-awaited bike-share system is finally slated to launch this summer, now that its organizers say they have a major deal signed to help fund and run the service.

“We are on our way,” Bikeshare Hawaii CEO Lori McCarney said Thursday. Singapore-based Secure Bike Share will partner with the nonprofit group that McCarney leads to finance and operate 1,000 bikes at 100 stations from Chinatown to Diamond Head, according to a news release.

The contract will see Honolulu join the 60 or so U.S. cities that have such an urban network for users to rent bicycles and drop them off at various stations around town, according to Bikeshare.com. Local bike-share advocates had originally hoped to launch the Oahu system in summer 2015 but didn’t secure the millions of startup dollars needed until now.

McCarney said she hopes the system will give a boost to bicycle use across Honolulu’s urban core. “We want people to have more choices in how they get around,” she said. “We think that bike-share is really going to do that.”

System users will be charged $3.50 for a single ride up to 30 minutes, according to Bikeshare Hawaii’s website. They’ll also be able to buy a $15 monthly pass for unlimited rides lasting up to 30 minutes, or $25 monthly passes that allow unlimited rides up to 60 minutes. A map of the 100 bike-share sites is available online at 808ne.ws/2mgUN9Z.

“The key for us is we need to truly understand” Honolulu’s residents, visitors and what makes them unique without using a “cookie-cutter approach” modeled on other bike-share systems, McCarney said Thursday.

The system also aims to be “financially self-sustaining” through its fares, sponsorships and donations, she added. That would be a different model from TheBus and most other public transit systems, which rely on public subsidies in addition to fares.

Several years ago city consultant NelsonNygaard recommended Honolulu build a bike-share program with as many as 1,700 bikes and 180 stations. McCarney said her group has studied the market, and it’s confident the scaled-down bike-share will still be self- sustaining and profitable enough for Secure Bike Share to see a return on its investment.

McCarney said Secure Bike Share made a multimillion-dollar investment. She declined to give the exact amount. Bikeshare Hawaii officials said last summer they had $2.5 million available and needed another $7.5 million to launch the program.

The local bike-share’s announced launch comes amid the city’s push under Mayor Kirk Caldwell to make Honolulu more bike-friendly — efforts that have been met with mixed reactions in the community. Caldwell once described the 2-mile protected bike lane along King Street as “the most controversial thing we’ve touched — maybe even more controversial than rail.”

The city recently installed bike lanes along McCully Street, and work has already started to paint lanes along South Street.

Caldwell has said he would consider it a victory if cyclists eventually represented 5 percent of all Oahu commuters. In 2014 they represented 1 percent.

There’s no date set yet for the launch, but Bikeshare Hawaii plans to provide more details on the equipment and bicycle designs in the coming months, McCarney said.