By Harika Maddala
Bay City News

The University of the Pacific hosted San Joaquin Council of Governments and its partners as they launched the Stockton Mobility Collective at a Rise ‘N’ Ride event Saturday.

Stockton Mobility Collective project brings clean, affordable transportation to serve economically disadvantaged communities through its nonprofit electric bikeshare and carshare programs. The project also includes mobility incentives and a workforce development program – to train Stockton residents in marketable fleet management and operational skills.

Part of the Rise ‘N’ Ride event, the program’s electric cars and bikes were showcased to the community with a chance to test-ride the bikes. The program, funded by a $7.4 million California Air Resources Board Sustainable Transportation Equity Project grant.

The carshare program is managed by nonprofit electric vehicle carsharing service ‘Miocar’. “We are currently working on bringing 30 vehicles for the whole program, and they will be available in different locations across Stockton,” said Christine Tran, assistant regional planner at SJCOG.

Tran said, as of April 1, there are two sites available to pick up cars in Stockton – one at Conway Homes in South Stockton and another on Grand Canal Boulevard near Chic-Fil-A on West March Lane.

Users can access the cars through the Miocar Networks application of App Store and Google Play Store. The account requires driver’s license and a payment method, with an initial charge of $20 which will be credited back to account to use after booking a vehicle.

The bikeshare program called ‘Bike Stockton’ is managed by the San Joaquin Regional Transit District. “Right now, we’re at phase one launch, and we have five stations across Stockton, with 40 bikes out,” said Nathan Schultz, director of operations at Bike Stockton.

Schultz said Bike Stockton aims to have 10 to 12 bike stations with 105 bikes in 2023.

The bikes are available to rent through the ‘Bike Share’ application on App Store and Google Play Store. A bike can be unlocked with a payment of $1, and the rider will be charged $0.15 per minute. The app also offers an annual pass for $40, with riders getting 30 minutes of free ride time per day and will be charged $0.05 per minutes after the free 30 minutes ride time.

Jessica Bilecki, sustainability director at UoP, said the university is hosting one of the e-bike stations by the library patio off of David Brubeck Way.

“It’s a huge benefit for students,” Bilecki said “It gives them more affordable options for getting to and off campus to access resources.”

Many students took the opportunity to ride the bikes, taking turns getting back on them for a second ride across the campus. “It’s very fast, you barely hit the pedal and you just go,” Olivia Mitchell said of her first time experiencing riding an e-bike.

The bikes ride at a maximum speed of 16 mph.

“Those things are very fast here. Yeah, I didn’t expect them to be that fast,” said Shawn Chatrath, digital media manager for Downtown Stockton. “But that’s good. You know, you can get around really, really quickly around this whole city.”

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