REDDY BIKESHARE LAUNCHES ITS FIRST PUBLIC ART PROJECT WITH EAT OFF ART

Aug 18

Project Pollination Bikes locked at the Delavan-Grider Community

Reddy Bikeshare, in partnership with Independent Health and support from Better Bike Share Partnership and Clean Mobility Buffalo, is excited to mix public art into active transportation around Buffalo’s East Side and beyond this summer.

This week, the 10-year-long bikeshare network launched four new special bikes into its fleet of 520 serving communities across Buffalo to Niagara Falls. Project Pollination is the first public art program by Reddy, made possible by a mini-grant from Better Bike Share Partnership awarded in the Spring. These all-new pedal bikes swap the traditional red & white branding for a new yellow floral theme about pollinating art. The two designs across the four bikes were made by Eat Off Art, a family-owned and -run small business based in Buffalo that blends art, education, and entrepreneurship to inspire and empower the community.

“Creating public art for bikeshare was incredibly fun,” said Edreys Wajed, who co-founded Eat Off Art with his wife Alexa. “I'm most excited about the fact that it's mobile. All of the art that I normally do as a public artist is very static and it's in a location. What makes this special is that this is going to be on the move and on the go!”

Project Pollination comes at a time when our non-profit organization, Shared Mobility Inc., is tasked with expanding our bikeshare network’s footprint with new stations and more pedal-assist e-bikes (REDDY+) across Buffalo’s east side. This ongoing project is one of many parts to Clean Mobility Buffalo, an initiative funded by the New York Clean Transportation Prizes supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

In conjunction with Clean Mobility Buffalo, Reddy Bikeshare, in partnership with Independent Health, launched a new discounted bikeshare pass serving adults living on Buffalo’s east side. The East Side Forward Pass costs $3 a year for users to unlock a pedal bike, including the art bikes, for as low as $0.01 per minute and as low as $0.10 per minute for a Reddy+ Bike. Users traditionally pay $40 per year for the discounted fare.

“This isn’t just about sparking excitement of new audiences to bikeshare,” said Simon Husted, marketing and communications manager for Reddy Bikeshare. “This goes deeper than that. Bikeshare and public art share a common feature–they’re here to make communities more vibrant. Just like how public art pollinates color and imagination in spaces once lacking, bikeshare stations do the same for ways of moving around."

To celebrate the launch of this public art project, Reddy Bikeshare is staging a special wellness challenge to “pollinate” art bikes at as many bikeshare stations as possible. Between now and the end of September, users who end their trip of an art bike at 3 or more different stations will be entered into a raffle to win a $40 Amazon Gift Card and $40 of riding credits. The gift cards are generously provided by our long-time partner Independent Health in celebration of Reddy Bikeshare hitting 10 seasons.