While Hailey may one day resemble Amsterdam for its relaxed stance on marijuana, Ketchum is hoping to follow the European city's lead on communal bicycles.
According to Gary Rapport, executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation, the city could have a communal bike program in place by the middle of summer, helping further alternative transportation as a viable option in the Wood River Valley.
"I don't see any downside—it means less driving and a more healthy and fun lifestyle," Rapport said. "As well, we can change the 'brand' of Ketchum to one of green innovation."
On June 19, Rapport met with a number of city officials and staff, as well as local business owners and Jason Miller, executive director of the Mountain Rides transportation authority, to begin working out the details.
While nothing has been finalized, Rapport said the goal was to kick the program off with 50 bicycles, as well as lockers for riders who have their own bikes but don't want to take them on the bus every day.
In fact, a major catalyst for this program is the capacity for bicycles on the public bus system.
"Right now there's only room for a couple of bikes on the bus, so if people can't get on, they just end up going back home and driving up north," Rapport said. "We need to figure out how we can help people working up here."
In order to benefit local employees rather than tourists, the program would seek sponsorship from area businesses, which would reserve around 80 to 85 percent of the available bikes for their workers.
This would leave the remaining 15 to 20 percent open on a first-come, first-served basis, reserved for Blaine County residents only.
Rapport said that for a small amount, these could be reserved for either a single period or even an entire summer season.
"We hear all the time from people wondering when we're going to bring back the green bikes from the previous community bike program in Ketchum," Miller said. "There's a lot of goodwill for this, but we need to succeed where it failed before, namely by creating accountability to ensure that the bikes are maintained and returned."
To do this, Miller said that making users give a credit card number or deposit would greatly help.
In preliminary planning, Rapport said there would be bike stations at Forest Service Park, the Park and Ride lot at the Wood River Community YMCA and at the River Run base of Bald Mountain to make access easy for bus commuters.
While corporate sponsorship would provide for maintenance of the bicycles, businesses would not be required to purchase the bikes. Rapport hopes the funding could come from grant money and perhaps from cities throughout the valley wishing to participate in the program.
Rapport said a maximum of $25,000 could be available from the Idaho Department of Commerce, with the possibility of receiving further funding from the Idaho Department of Transportation next year.
"In speaking with some of the bike store owners, they seemed to hesitate at first, as they thought this could potentially hurt sales," Rapport said. "However, they got behind it once they saw this was not aimed at the tourist market."
Rapport added that the bicycles would be both purchased from and serviced by area bike shops.
However, Rapport said that funding is only one step in getting the program rolling, explaining that marketing will be just as important in order to get daily commuters, local businesses, and city officials interested and involved.
Along with the Ketchum CDC, Rapport said he'll be enlisting the help of Mountain Rides and Community Rising, a group of citizens concerned with the effects of "Peak Oil"—the concept of declining oil reserves—and climate change, among other organizations, to aid in the effort to raise awareness.
"These kinds of programs have been successful all over the world," Miller said. "And this fits in our big picture of providing as many means of alternative transportation as we can."
