DENVER, Colorado — Back in 2020, the City of Denver began an assessment related to electronic mobility options. The city found what residents in the area already knew to be true – the Montbello neighborhood had significant barriers when it came to transportation.
Fast forward four years and the Montbello Organizing Committee (MOC) is launching its Montbello Moves program. It's an e-bike library with 10 bikes available for rent. Within the next two weeks, the bikes will be available to the public. Each rental can last up to three days.
The service is critical in an area the committee considers a transportation desert.
"We’ve lost a lot of our bus routes, a lot of our service out here," said Mayra Gonzales, chief impact officer with the MOC. "We started to design this project that would alleviate that stress of not having enough mobility options for folks in the community."
Gonzales said the limited options make it difficult for people without a reliable mode of transportation, such as a personal vehicle.
"If you want to get to the grocery store, and you live on one quadrant, you are having to take two different buses to get to the grocery store, which is on the opposite side of the neighborhood," said Gonzales.
The group spent the last couple of years researching options. They found a bike without a throttle that operates with a peddle assist, meaning the bike will not move forward without the rider pedaling. It has various modes of assistance for different users and different settings.
The group hired its first bike librarian, Xitlaly Sandoval, who will help users who rent the bikes out. Sandoval will make sure riders know how to operate the bike, fit them with a helmet and provide a bike lock for them.
Sandoval spent her childhood riding throughout Montbello with friends, family and community groups.
"It inspired me to work here because I feel like it’s more related to the community, and I want to help the community more because since the beginning, I was really interested in helping out, like making Montbello a better place and people having easy access to," said Sandoval.
As part of the library, community groups and nonprofits can also rent out a cargo, passenger van. It is wheelchair friendly and can be rented out for 24-hour periods. Groups do need to go through a pre-approval process, but once that is done, they can rent it out whenever it is available.
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