Bike-share rentals hit Honolulu streets with blessing

Honolulu’s long-anticipated bike-share rental system went live Wednesday, starting with a blessing at the state Capitol for the distinctive turquoise bicycles.

State Health Director Virginia Pressler said the Biki system, which launched with 500 bikes at 87 stations from Diamond Head to Chinatown, could help curb Hawaii’s increasing rates of obesity and diabetes.

“We have done an excellent job over the last few decades engineering physical activity out of our lives,” Pressler told an audience of about 200 Biki supporters, including city and state leaders. “It’s time that we engineered physical activity back into our lives.”

The total number of Biki bikes will reach 1,000 in the coming weeks, according to Bikeshare Hawaii, which is overseeing the system. It now falls on that nonprofit group; its operator, Singapore-based Secure Bike Share; and city officials to monitor how well the system works and make the necessary adjustments.

“This will be a transitional time. Because we are a people business, we’re going to make mistakes. We are,” Bikeshare Hawaii CEO Lori McCarney said Wednesday. “Please show extra aloha.”

Waikiki resident Matt Nakamura, who works downtown, purchased the system’s $20, 300-minute “Free Spirit” pass at a station on Mililani Street near Iolani Palace during his lunch break Wednesday.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. I think the only thing I’d probably be concerned about is general safety — throw a bunch of people who’ve never been on bikes before on bikes, hope they know the rules of the road,” Nakamura said. “Since I don’t drive, I’ll be using this a lot.”

Meanwhile, Bikeshare Hawaii is working on agreements to put the 10 stations planned for Kapiolani Park in other places, McCarney said. The group will assume for now that they can’t install them at the park, amid strong objections from the Kapiolani Park Preservation Society members to use of parkland for what they view as a commercial venture.

Having to relocate those stations won’t make or break Biki’s success, but it will limit access to one of the city’s most popular outdoor recreation spots, McCarney said.

“The sad thing for us is the people that want to access the park by bike … now have to wait,” McCarney said. “Hopefully there will be a time in the future that they can.”

If stations eventually can go there, Bikeshare Hawaii would seek funding from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program to pay for them, she added.