Denver B-Cycle Chief Nick Bohnenkamp Moving On

The chief executive of Denver’s bike-share system is moving on to another job, Denver B-cycle announced Friday.

Nick Bohnenkamp has headed the nonprofit bike-share operator for almost nine years. “I am very proud of the mobility service Denver B-Cycle provides the city of Denver day-in and day-out,” he said in a statement. “We have wonderfully generous supporters and sponsors, as well as a talented, dedicated, and hard-working staff. As a non-profit organization, we are in a strong position, both operationally and financially, to help solve the transportation challenges facing our growing city.”

Bohnenkamp will stay on at B-Cycle for the next few months during the transition to a new executive before joining Team Tipton, a consulting firm.

B-Cycle was a breakthrough when it launched in 2010. But the Hancock administration has been apathetic about improving and expanding the system, and it hasn’t reached the scale necessary to become useful to most of the city. Now nearly a decade old, B-Cycle’s fleet of 737 bikes and 89 stations face escalating maintenance needs.

The big question now is where B-Cycle fits into a changing industry driven by venture capital-backed dockless bike-share companies. (The Hancock administration may or may not give dockless companies carte blanche in the city. The public works department is waiting to see how a University of Denver pilot goes.)

Bohnenkamp has said B-Cycle is working on a hybrid “hub-based” model that would combine stations and dockless bikes. It could be a promising way forward for bike-share in Denver, but the plan needs funding, and so far Hancock has shown only a small commitment to it.