Centro plans on contracting with Veo to expand bike and scooter sharing services into Onondaga County, said Steven Koegel, Centro’s vice president of communications and business planning.
Veo is the same company that provides a bike sharing service in Syracuse. Veo bikes and scooters averaged more than 1,000 rides per day in the city early in the summer of 2022.
“It’s just something to give our community different transportation options,” Koegel said.
If the plan comes to fruition, riders could take Veo bikes to municipalities who agree to allow them. Because Veo’s only local contract is with the city, service to the bikes shuts off at the city limits.
Koegel said he could not yet say which municipalities had agreed to work with Centro. Onondaga Community College has expressed interest in adding the bikes on campus, according to Koegel.
Centro is hoping to roll out access to Veo bikes in the mid-to-late Spring when winter weather subsides, Koegel said.
The expansion has been planned to serve at least two purposes.
The bike sharing program could allow people who may be near a bus route to ride a bike to their nearest stop or from their stop a destination, Koegel said.
Neil Burke, the city’s Director of Special Projects for the Department of Public Works, said at a recent Common Council meeting that the city has seen bikes piled up at the intersection of James Street and Thompson Road.
The city believes that’s the case because riders are getting as close as they can to the James Street Wegmans, which sits less than half a mile outside the city, Burke said.
A contract between Veo and Centro would allow those on the bikes and scooters to take them to municipalities who agree to take on the scooters and bikes.
Koegel said Centro is hoping to put Veo bikes near the Loop the Lake trail at least in part because in runs bus routes to the Orange Lot, near the fairgrounds during the summer.
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