A donation of docking equipment by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will allow the city of Long Beach to expand its bikeshare program and double the amount of bike hubs across the city.

The donation of bike rack parts, which was accepted by the city council Tuesday night, will allow the city to set up 85 to 90 additional bike hubs across the city, according to the Public Works Department. West Long Beach, North Long Beach and Douglas Park will be focus areas for the deployment of new stations, according to the department.

“One of the things that prohibit people from using bikeshare more often is just the availability of bikes and hubs in convenient locations for them,” said Fern Nueno, the city’s mobility programs officer. “Having enough hubs in more locations is really what’s going to provide better access.”

Currently, bike hubs are concentrated in Downtown and beachfront-adjacent communities, from Alamitos Beach to Belmont Shore. Central and West Long Beach are home to only a handful of bike stations, with the entire westside hosting just one bike hub.

The program was launched in 2016, using an outside operator before Long Beach-based Pedal Movement took over maintenance and operations in 2019.

“We had been planning early on to expand the number of bikeshare hubs across the city,” Nueno said. “This just allows us to do it faster and more conveniently.”

The city has been refurbishing 1,000 bikes this year, with 500 already refurbished and an estimated 370 deployed so far. Using the new docking equipment, Nueno said the remaining bikes will be added to the fleet next year.