No dramatic changes yet for Dallas bike share companies

Friday marks the deadline for bike share companies in Dallas to move their bikes out of the way. But the changes may not be as dramatic as some are hoping for.

The free ride for the bike share companies could soon be coming to an end.

One Dallas city councilman said the city is considering charging the bicycle companies money to use city sidewalks. That money could then be used for bike racks and bike lanes.

From piled up to standing at attention, bike share companies are trying to straighten up their act since a memo from Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Last month, he told the companies that the city would remove bikes that are in the way.

But the city is back peddling a bit. They'll only pick up bikes after repeated complaints. Not everyone is happy about that.

After the threat from the city manager, several city council members backed the bikes, including Mayor Mike Rawlings and Councilman Lee Kleinman. They want the bike share to work.

"I've got to imagine when cars first showed up in the city of Dallas and people were used to parking their horses in front of places, and all of a sudden there is a car parked there, they were upset about that,” Kleinman said. “We are actively engaging with Downtown Dallas to install bike racks around the city so there are places to put them."

One issue with the bikes is their sheer number. Dallas went from being the largest city without a bike share program to having the largest bike share program in North America with 20,000 bikes.

Kleinman said he does want to see a more even distribution of the bikes around Dallas and not so concentrated downtown.

The city council is set to talk about it all at a briefing on February 26.