Longmont's New E-Bike Share Is Built Around Coffman Street and a 15-Minute Clock

Longmont's BCycle e-bikes have been available since July 29. That added about 30 pedal-assist bikes at five docks, and you can return them anywhere on a network that also covers Boulder and Superior. The dock locations and the way the fares are timed both point to short trips within Longmont, starting at the transit stops on Coffman Street.

Two months in, the system is still small. Two of its docks are on the Coffman transit corridor, and several October events take place close to the docks.

Five docks, and most of them sit within a few blocks of each other

The City of Longmont's BCycle page lists these stations:

1. 6th Avenue and Coffman Street, one block off Main Street downtown.
2. 8th Avenue and Coffman Street RTD Park-n-Ride, the transit hub where the system had its ribbon cutting on August 12.
3. Longmont Public Library/Civic Center, 350 Kimbark Street.
4. Longmont Recreation Center, 310 Quail Road.
5. Rogers Grove Nature Area, 220 Hover Street.

The first three make a tight downtown and civic cluster. The rec center and Rogers Grove are the two spokes heading out of downtown. Rogers Grove might be the most useful of the five for a ride that isn't an errand. It's next to Fairgrounds Lake and the St. Vrain Greenway, with paved and gravel trails, an amphitheater, gardens, picnic areas and an orchard.

Spread 30 bikes across five docks and you get about six bikes per station, on average. Superior's version is smaller and denser, with 20 bikes and 38 docks at Founders Park, Community Park, Superior Civic Space and Superior Commons Park, according to the Town of Superior's sustainability newsletter. Longmont's system is a bit bigger. It's still sized for a few bikes sitting at each stop, not a large fleet.

BCycle is a docked system, so every ride has to start and end at a station. A bike can't be left at a coffee shop on Main or at your front door. If you already own a bike, the Longmont Downtown Development Authority's getting-around page counts more than 60 bike racks along downtown Main Street. Inside Longmont, a BCycle trip can only begin or end at one of the five docks.

The fare structure is built for short trips

Riders buy passes through the BCycle app, and the network's fares are posted on Boulder BCycle's pass options page:

The page also states its approach directly: "Bike share works best for short trips, helping keep bikes available for everyone."

At launch, the single-ride fare was different. The Longmont Times-Call reported on August 11 that a single ride cost $7.63 for up to 30 minutes. The operator's current page lists $5 for 15 minutes. Under the posted rate, a single ride that ends within 15 minutes costs less than it did at launch. Past that, each extra quarter hour adds another $5, so a 16- to 30-minute ride comes to $10.

Some quick math on the current fares:

• The guest pass costs about as much as four single rides. If you're doing several downtown errands in a day, the day pass is the better deal by the fourth stop.
• The annual membership is $163.57, almost exactly five months of the monthly rate. Anyone who expects to ride past early spring pays less with the annual pass.
• The low-income annual pass costs $40 plus tax, under a quarter of the standard annual price, and includes the same one-hour trips. BCycle asks applicants to email for registration instructions.

There's also a hard limit. Bikes not returned within 72 hours count as stolen, and the rider is charged $2,800, a city spokeswoman told the Times-Call. Riders must be at least 18.

The city describes the system the same way. In the launch announcement, quoted by the Times-Call, Transportation Planning Manager Cammie Edson said:

"This program provides an important first- and final-mile transportation option while making it easier for people to choose biking for everyday trips."

First- and final-mile means the stretch between the RTD stop and the place you're actually going. That explains why two of the five docks are on Coffman Street.

Longmont was the first of the new towns to launch

Longmont went live first in a regional expansion paid for by the Colorado Energy Office's Community Accelerated Mobility Project grant. The city applied together with Boulder County, Broomfield, Lafayette, Superior, Westminster and Commuting Solutions and won $1.5 million. Longmont's share was about $379,000 for equipment and operations, and the city added a local match of about $21,445 from its Street Fund Tax. The bikes are run by Boulder BCycle, a nonprofit that has operated Boulder's bike share since 2011.

So far the network covers Longmont, Boulder and Superior. Superior held its official launch celebration on October 4, and the city lists Westminster as coming soon without a date. Lafayette, Broomfield and Boulder County are partners on the grant, but they haven't published station lists or launch dates.

Under the rules, you can take a bike from the library dock and return it at a station in Boulder. The fares push the other way. Even the best passes include one hour per trip, then charge $7.63 for each extra half hour. Like the dock locations, the pricing favors trips that start and end in town over a ride between cities.

Where the docks put you this October

This month, several events and destinations are within a short ride of a dock:

• Day of the Dead Family Celebration, Saturday, October 24, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Longmont Museum puts it on at Fourth Avenue and Kimbark Street, with music, dance, food trucks and a Gigantes procession, according to the city's event page. It's on the same street as the library dock at 350 Kimbark.
• 47th annual Halloween Parade and Trick or Treat Street, Saturday, October 31. Lineup starts at 9:30 a.m. at Roosevelt Park, 700 Longs Peak Avenue, and the parade heads down Main Street at 10 a.m., according to the city's Fall 2026 events calendar. The 6th and Coffman dock is one block from Main.
• Rogers Grove and the St. Vrain Greenway. The Hover Street dock is right at the nature area. A guest pass covers 30-minute rides each way out of downtown, with a break by Fairgrounds Lake in between.
• The library and rec center run. Both are civic stops with their own docks, and any membership covers a one-hour trip between them.

Neither the city nor BCycle has published a winter schedule for the Longmont stations, so it's unclear how the system will run once it snows. BCycle's pricing page mentions riders "commuting year-round" but gives no Longmont-specific details.

The next dock waits on construction at Hover and 119

The city lists one more planned station, at Hover Street and Colorado Highway 119, "Coming in 2028" once construction there wraps up. Other docks depend on future funding.

The grant runs on a similar clock. The Times-Call reported that it covers the program through December 31, 2028. That sets up 2028 as the year Longmont adds a dock and its grant funding ends.

Separately, downtown's south end is changing too. BizWest reported on October 4 that the city approved an urban renewal plan and up to $38 million in financing for a transit garage at 1st and Main. A Front Range Community College campus is planned east of Main between First and Boston avenues, with classes targeted for August 2029. If that district gets built, the docks on Coffman will be close to a new transit hub and a new campus.

For now, Longmont has about 30 bikes, five docks and $5 single rides that last 15 minutes. That setup works for short trips like the Park-n-Ride to the library, downtown to Rogers Grove, or a block over to Main for the parade on October 31.

If you're figuring out how commuting and daily errands work in Longmont, from the Coffman Street transit stops to the Hover Street corridor, the team at Front Range Collective follows these changes block by block and is happy to share what we're seeing. Start Your Home Journey with a team that keeps up with how Longmont gets around.