Some Milwaukee things come and go, while some become icons. Mandatory Milwaukee is all about the latter. This week: Bublr Bikes! Again!
When Bublr Bikes launched in Milwaukee in the summer of 2014, the homegrown bike share program was something of a local novelty. Uber had landed in the city only a few months prior, and those darn electric scooters wouldn’t appear for another four years. Plenty of other cities boasted bike share programs—New York City, Chicago, Denver, Wisconsin’s own Madison—but for Milwaukee, Bublr was an unknown quantity.
Eleven years later, Bublr has proven itself to be an intrinsic part of everyday Milwaukee life. What started as a 10-station program has ballooned into a 100-plus-station program. In 2021—a year before e-bikes joined the fleet—Bublr recorded 48,376 trips from 15,893 unique users.
Also in 2021, we published a Mandatory Milwaukee article on Bublr Bikes: “Mandatory Milwaukee: Bublr Bikes are the best.” Why revisit Bublr now, four years later? Because Bublr is set to expand—and we mean expand. If riding a Bublr bike was “mandatory” in 2021, it’s practically going to be unavoidable in the years to come. Welcome to Bublr 2.0.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wPkV5n8eUL4
“Bublr 2.0 is the largest investment in Milwaukee’s bike share since it launched in 2014,” reads an Engage MKE page. “This major system upgrade will add 500 e-bikes to Bublr’s fleet and 800 new docks to grow the number of stations.”
That’s right: 500 new e-bikes and 800 new docks. (That’s 800 new individual docks, which will roughly double the number of existing stations.) Bublr 2.0 indeed.
“This investment allows Bublr Bikes to expand beyond our current network as well as adding density to make Bublr an easy choice when moving through our beautiful city,” said Bublr executive director Laura Bolger in a recent statement. “The expansion means more of our neighbors can access an affordable, reliable, and convenient alternative to transportation. Bublr remains committed to being a bikeshare for all and looks forward to introducing the system in new neighborhoods and communities.”
The expansion comes courtesy of a $3.3 million federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant and an $830,000 match from the City of Milwaukee. (“The formula funding is provided by the federal government to states and, unlike many awards during the Trump administration, has not been subject to clawbacks or cancellations,” Urban Milwaukee helpfully informs.)
Where will the new docks and stations be located? That’s up to you. The Department of Public Works and Bublr—via Engage MKE—are currently accepting suggestions. “Explore the map and add a pin to comment on existing (grey) or proposed (blue) station locations and share your own ideas for new stations within Bublr’s expanded Milwaukee service area,” says Engage MKE. As of this writing, there are nearly 200 submitted suggestions.
The expansion will happen quickly, too. Bublr will take community input and add new e-bikes this summer, and install the stations from summer 2025 through spring 2026. Some of these proposed dots will soon become reality.
Back in 2021, I wrote about my initial resistance to Bublr Bikes. (Why did I initially resist them? Who knows.) That resistance eventually eroded:
So what finally turned me on to Bublr? Well, I started using it. Even though I own a bike, I often find myself wandering around aimlessly but looking to cut my aimless-wandering time in half. Hey, there’s a Bublr station. Why not grab a bike, ride it home, and leave it a few blocks from my house? During the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020, I used Bublr bikes constantly to find or catch up with marches. Just this past weekend, with my real bike at my office, I took a Bublr from my house to Back Bay Park, then Bullseye Records, then the Oak Leaf Trail, then Riverside Park, then back to my house again.
“So that’s it. That’s the article,” I concluded. “Bublr Bikes are the best. Wear a helmet. Don’t ride on the sidewalk. Get out there, Milwaukee, and use the things the city has to offer.”
Happily, the number of things the city has to offer is set to multiply.
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