On December 6, 2017, Bike/Walk Tampa Bay Community Partner, Coast Bike Share, celebrated their third year as Tampa Bay’s official bike share program. The program, managed by Cyclehop, offers flexible one-way travel options via 700 bicycles located at 80+ hubs across downtown Tampa, downtown St. Petersburg, and USF Tampa.

In just three years, the good people of Tampa Bay have ridden 500,000 miles, burned 20 million calories, and reduced Tampa’s carbon footprint by 440,000 pounds. To celebrate the birthday of the bike share program, Coast Bikes led a group ride through Downtown Tampa, providing a free hour of bicycling for those in attendance. People hopped on their bicycles to meet at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park at 6PM for pre-ride coffee, snacks, and chats. The bike ride went through downtown along Tampa’s festive Riverwalk, through Harbour Island, and then went north, ending at Hidden Springs Ale Works for a celebration and award ceremony.

Award categories included Most Valuable Bicyclist awards, among others. As the ceremony came to an end, Eric Trull, Regional Director of Coast Bike Share, encouraged the crowd to erupt in a final round of applause before the live music began. “None of this would be possible without partners like Bike/Walk Tampa Bay and the Tampa Bay Downtown Partnership. We have all worked together to get people riding—to realize how fun it is—people who haven’t gotten on bikes in 10 or 20 years. We are seeing more and more people using bikes for transportation now, and for this area, that’s transformative,” he said.