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A reader asks: Why are there no bicycles available for rent anywhere in New Bedford?
New Bedford is quickly becoming a transportation hub. South Coast Rail is bringing more visitors to the city. New Bedford’s waterfront Blue Lane path system continues to expand. SRTA buses, ferries and the regional airport have long given locals plenty of ways to get around. But one of the urban commuter’s favorite modes of transportation is notably missing — where are all the bikes?
For over two decades, Yesteryear Cyclery rented bikes in New Bedford. In 2014, local Eddie Dellecese opened a downtown bike shop, fulfilling a childhood dream. And in 2018, the City of New Bedford launched a bike share program. None of this lasted.
This is the latest installment of a series that answers questions about what’s going on in New Bedford. Ask the Light your question here and our reporters will look into it for you.
So, after the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased interest in cycling, and as the city continues expanding The Blue Lane — a set of paths along the waterfront, including the Covewalk and Harborwalk — why is there nowhere to rent a bike in New Bedford?
Simply, there’s not enough demand.
Dellecese found this 11 years ago when he opened his bike sales and repair shop, Harbor Cycle in downtown New Bedford. He said he bought “everything that you could imagine” a bike shop might need, and poured all his money into the business.
Dellecese grew up in Acushnet, and said he was part of the downtown skateboard community.
“It’s really special down there,” Dellecese said. “I wanted to bring the bike scene [to New Bedford], but it’s just not the same.”
Dellecese is a fisherman, and his shop was open for about two years. In that time, Dellecese said, he found it tricky to get a manager who could handle the shop while he was away. He dealt with repeated theft. But the biggest challenge was interest.
Dellecese said people would come into the store having ordered parts online, and want him to attach them. Only a handful of people inquired about rental bikes, and, oddly enough, those requests often came from people filming movies in the area, who wanted them for their sets.
Renting bikes out requires a lot of investment, so demand has to be pretty high. Adam Iacaponi, general manager at Yesteryear Cyclery, a bike shop on Hathaway Road, said carrying an insurance policy for a fleet of rental bikes is expensive. The policy has to cover liabilities including potential injuries and lawsuits resulting from those injuries.
On top of that, the additional service time for all the bikes meant rentals at Yesteryear ended up being a wash, because bike rentals made up such a small part of Yesteryear’s business.
Yesteryear stopped offering rentals in 2020. Now, at a maximum, Iacaponi guesses he gets questions about rentals once a week in peak season.
The city ran into similar issues when it launched a bike share program seven years ago. The program made cruiser bikes available at different points in the city for on-demand local trips. It had annual, pay-as-you-go, and student membership options. The annual cost for members was $25, and trips under an hour were free, with a $1 charge for each additional 30 minutes.
This program did not catch on with the public, according to Jonathan Darling, the city’s public information officer, and was expensive to operate.
The program survived for just over a year.
Why isn’t biking popular in New Bedford?
Iacaponi said cities like Boston have a much stronger bike culture than New Bedford because they have big commuter cultures. The rise of electric bikes has changed this a bit, and biking to work has become a bit more popular, but New England weather doesn’t help.
Shops like Bristol Bikes in Rhode Island, Iacaponi said, do well because of their locations. Bristol Bikes sits right next to the East Bay Bike Path, so it’s a great option for tourists. And while biking in New Bedford has improved, Iacaponi said narrow streets and fast traffic are strong limiting factors.
Dellecese, who closed Harbor Cycle in 2016, said he sold his inventory to a friend on the Cape, who rents bikes successfully. He says he likes to visit Westport Cycles, where he says people are into the biking scene, and there are more obvious places to ride.
Will New Bedford ever be a biking city?
Will Gardner, head of South Coast Places for People, is hopeful that New Bedford could be a biking city again. He knows it once was — in a 1940s film of Rogers Bicycle Shop on the corner of Brock Avenue and George Street, throngs of kids fill the street on their bikes.
“Such a cool scene to see how vibrant the city was then, and just to see all these people out on bikes,” Gardner said. “I think the question is: what happened?”
As he sees it, the growth of suburbs placed people farther from the places they needed to be, while filling streets with parking spots.
But Gardner sees progress. “The fact that you can ride over the Fairhaven bridge, and ride down a beautiful ramp, and then cross Route 18 with a pedestrian refuge and a safe crossing at the foot of Union? That’s really important, and that comes from long-term investments,” Gardner said.
Gardner thinks it’s a myth that weather and darkness get in the way of being a “biking city” — he points to Copenhagen and Montreal as cities where investing in a culture of biking has created a culture of biking.
He believes short-term investments in bike safety, such as paint and cones at a scary intersection, can make people more comfortable biking in the city.
In the last five years, according to Darling, the city has added about five miles of bike lanes. Statewide, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation dedicated $403 million for bicycle and pedestrian programs as part of the Fiscal Years 2026-2030 Capital Investment Plan, according to MassDOT.
Darling said New Bedford is well-positioned in the urban trend of people moving from cars to other forms of transportation. Zoning reforms have created transit-oriented districts around the new MBTA commuter rail stations in the North End and near downtown.
So Darling said the city would be willing to attempt another bike share program should demand increase — especially when the Riverwalk portion of the Blue Lane is complete.
Abigail Pritchard, a graduate student in the Boston University journalism program, is a frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light. She can be reached at apritchard@newbedfordlight.org.
Many years ago there were bike races that brought cycling to New Bedford’s south end. In today’s New Bedford we have no tourist attractions so no need for bike rentals. What is needed is to bring back the cruise line’s and get the state pier in the city’s control. With the economic development opportunity that would bring prosperity to the city’s historic district and downtown
Where is your civic pride? Do we live in the same city? No tourist attractions? Fort Rodman/Taber and the hurricane barrier walks, Cisco, and the beaches make for a fabulous weekend in the south end. Downtown has multiple museums and hotels, national park, and waterfront dining. We have Olmstead-designed public parks, nature trails, harbor tours, and thriving Central American restaurant scene on Acushnet Ave.
Not to mention New Bedford is already port of call for cruises! There were over 30 visits last season: https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/2025/07/01/american-cruise-lines-aims-to-expand-at-new-bedford-state-pier/84421582007/
The bike scene fell apart due to video game console and the internet
New Bedford has never had as many cruise ship passengers as it has had in the last few years.
New Bedford has never had a many tourist attractions as it has now.
The city does not own State Pier.
Who is funding the repair of State pier?
Is the State, under Healy, better run than New Bedford?
Bikeshares are mostly used by commuters that live in 600 sq.ft apartments in large, dense cities and have nowhere to store a bike of their own. In New Bedford, most people who want a bike already own one and have a place to store it. The apartments here aren’t like the ones in New York or Boston that have been cut up and subdivided until so many are too small to store a bike. They’re mostly the same size they were when they were built.
In addition, most people here have cars, and those that can’t afford one, can usually swing buying a cheap bike from Walmart. Or steal one, cause you know, it’s New Bedford, and everyone knows bikes get stolen here quite often (I love how the article skipped over why the insurance costs are so high). The poor can always take the bus too, and even walking isn’t that bad given how small the city is.
Bikesharing is simply a niche that exists in other cities mostly due to scarcity of space. Here, there’s enough storage space, thus it’s not economic. We also don’t get enough tourists to justify it being part of that industry either. Even the few tourists we do get usually come here in cars.
New Bedford could be a good place for a bike share program. The prevalence of three deckers give the city a lot of density. If the infrastructure funding was changed to subsidize biking rather than car storage (parking), I think the use of bikes would flourish. That has been the experience of cities, large and small, around the world New Bedford is relatively flat and is narrow east to west, so a few strategic north-south bikeways could be supported by a relatively modest number of ride share locations. Anti biking people always point to the lack of cyclists on our current (dangerous to bike on) streets as evidence that bike infrastructure is not needed. I submit that if you had continuous protected bike lanes from the South End to Brooklawn or beyond, they would quickly be a busy pathway. Cars are expensive to buy, insure, and maintain. Roads for cars are similarly expensive. Bikes and bike lanes are cheaper.
It would be nice to get some type of rebate from our government for buying bicycles manufactured in the USA.
Just the USA?
What percentage of E bikes are manufactured in the USA?
Are any manufactured with less than 50% foreign manufactured components?
Between the pot holes, utility repairs, intersections, sewer grates with bars open to the direction of your travel, and drivers of vehicles that could care less, New Bedord is a bigger challenge than any cyclist could ever experience!
Bicycles are great and mostly used by a select group. Not all tourists will use this service, but maybe it could be a draw if it was promoted correctly, for example rent a bike, ride by the beaches, and visit Fort Tabor and the Veteran’s Museum. Now it would be a little tougher with the newly provided free bus service and there might not be enough ridership to generate enough profit to support this type of business.
As others have stated, we have storage for bikes, they’re cheap new at Walmart / Target and even cheaper on the second hand market locally online. The FREE city bus service gets you to most major spots these days. The city has come a long way granted, the train is finally here after how many decades? But the city did pass on an aquarium, and two casinos. I’m not saying those would have helped but the city has a LONG way to go before making it bike safe/friendly. Then there’s the electric bike / scooters that seem to be taking over now. They’re everywhere and a lot of riders are not respecting the rules of the road at all making it dangerous. Not sure what the answer is to a better downtown area but it has seen some change in the right direction. We have the Z opening back up and a few new eateries. Let’s keep moving in the right direction for the locals. I still doubt we will ever be a great tourist destination from afar though.
I’ve been asking this for a while, I see it all over Boston. I think some strategic area to put them would be the 2 rail stations, bus station, the fort and up and down the bike paths 🤷♂️ i would like to see it in the city though!
I’m guessing these bikes will end up in the woods and trashed…The only safe place to use these bikes are in the South end of the city where there’s also a lot of crime taking place and people getting shot so it’s really not safe to be riding around on a bicycle and be shot at and either killed or injured…Most people who have been relocated to the area’s of NewBedford and FallRiver are formerly from Dorchester Roxbury, Mattapan areas of Boston which are getting Bike Lanes throughout Boston and it’s causing havoc on the traffic congestion throughout the city…People seem to forget we are in the North East where the weather gets really cold during mid-October till mid-May so nobody is going to rent these bikes however there’s some nice trails in Bristol RI Colt state park and the FallRiver water front where you must pay attention to your surroundings anywhere in FallRiver or NewBedford…It would be nice if you didn’t have to worry about your surroundings but Southeastern Massachusetts is not a safe place for any outside activity anymore…It would be great if we could take advantage and get out and go for a ride hopefully all the new cameras will have a impact on all the crime in the area…
A major problem is that the two main ways to travel from downtown to the north end of the city are difficult to ride a bike on. Mt. Pleasant street is way to narrow to comfortable ride and Herman Melville has been systemically under maintained by the City as well as abused by the heavy industry that lines it. These two streets are the obvious choice for a cyclist trying to go from downtown to the north end on a flat road.
It has also not been a priority of the Mitchell administration to connect communities. They are only focused on downtown and have been like that for over a decade. One only need to look at the state of Acushnet Ave from Coggeshall St to Nash Rd to see what the Mayor considers his priorities and bikes are definitely not one of them