Rochester’s bike and scooter program gets gift to expand

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — A popular program that brought bikes and scooters to the streets of Rochester just got a big gift to expand.

HOPR Wednesday morning announced it received a grant of $240,000 from ESL Federal Credit Union to install more bikes and scooters across the city.

HOPR has already added eight new stations with the grant.

When it comes to the placement of those stations, the company’s operations manager, Isaac Hutton, said HOPR spoke with local organizations and tapped into some data to find the areas most in need of transportation.

"There are these certain neighborhoods where it’s known that car ownership is less,” Hutton said. “So we look at areas there, where it might be a neighborhood where car ownership is less than 26% I believe is what she quoted. And so we will put a station there knowing that people are needing it."

For the low-income option, the company would verify recipients’ income.

HOPR will soon be introducing a cash-pay option for those without debit or credit cards.