May 14, 2008 6:08 pm US/Mountain
Free Bike Rentals Coming To Denver For DNC
By Matthew J. Buettner, Web Producer
DENVER (CBS4) ―
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper was on hand at the Denver Convention Center Wednesday to help introduce a new initiative to encourage bike use as an alternative way to get around Denver during the Democratic National Convention and beyond.
Denver Host Committee President Elbra Wedgeworth, Gov. Bill Ritter and Hickenlooper unveiled the plans for the city-wide bike-sharing program. It's called "Freewheelin."
"This is going to be one of our very important initiatives for the convention coming up in August," Wedgeworth said.
Hickenlooper said the initiative is important because riding a bike cuts down on traffic, making the air cleaner, and makes people healthier. And he said Denver is the ideal place to ride a bike.
"There is no better place to ride bicycles than Denver, Colorado," he said. "After all, Denver has more miles of bike paths than any other city in the country; we have 300 days of sunshine a year."
Freewheelin was developed bike industry leaders and the healthcare group Humana. As part of the program, the non-profit organization Bikes Belong will bring 1,000 bicycles to Denver during the convention in August. The bikes will be available for anyone to use, free of charge, providing they return the bikes to any of the Freewheelin racks that will be strategically placed throughout the city.
Hickenlooper said Humana has seen internal corporate success with its in-house Freewheelin program it offers to its employees.
"They are eager to help spread this vision as a preventative health strategy," he said.
Hickenlooper said the Freewheelin project will help kick-start Denver and get the city off on the right track to become less dependant on cars.
Dan Oftedahl, the president of Humana's Colorado market, said Denver was one of the few metro areas in the country to bring Freewheelin to its residents.
"The health of people and the health of the environment are connected," Oftedahl said. "What's good for the body is good for the environment. So by supporting healthy and active lifestyles with programs like Freewheelin, we believe we can also improve the health of our environment."
Oftedahl said Freewheelin was developed inside Humana's Innovation Center, an internal think-tank created to find ways to improve the health of Americans.
The executive director of Bikes Belong, Tim Blumenthal, said the goal is to show that bikes are great for short trips large, busy metropolitan areas.
"Forty percent of the trips that Americans make are 2 miles or shorter," Blumenthal said. "A lot of the trips, for sure, during the convention are going to be 2 miles or shorter; from hotels to the convention center, from the convention center to the Pepsi Center; all around."
Freewheelin bike racks, or kiosks, will be set up at various points around Denver, including university campuses and business areas. The bikes are Trek 7100 WSDs. They are equipped with a CPU that tracks the distance the bike has traveled.
Bikes can only be accessed from the kiosk with a credit card or a validated program ID. There is no charge for using the bike, but it must be returned to another kiosk. The kiosks are run with solar power and hold anywhere from 12 to 24 bikes at a time.
At the news conference there were many different styles of bikes on display.
"I grew up in East Denver and this is 100 times better than the Schwinn I had when I was growing up," Wedgeworth said, referring to one of the bikes on display.
The bikes will be available at the start of the convention, Aug. 25.
Additional Resources
• For complete coverage of the planning for the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, as well as information about how to volunteer and for a list of helpful links, visit the
Denver 2008 DNC Convention Section.
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