A bike and e-scooter sharing service is expanding in Rochester, focusing on neighborhoods where residents are less likely to have a vehicle.

The goal is to give people a route out of poverty.

In the spring, HOPR brought electric scooters and bikes to the City of Rochester. Now, the organization and ROC City Freedom Riders are bringing even more to those that need them most.

Thanks to a $240,000 grant from ESL, eight new HOPR bike and scooter hubs have been installed throughout the city.

For Rashad Smith, co-founder of ROC City Freedom Riders, access to transportation is a matter of equity.

“Access the transportation is important, particularly when you think about Black and Brown communities, where car ownership is less. And so for HOPR to provide additional hubs throughout marginalized communities, it’s critically important,” said Smith.

The docking stations were placed in areas of concentrated poverty, with the hope that greater mobility will lead to greater opportunities.

“We queue into data where, sometimes, we’ll see a handful of bikes collect by a bus stop,” said HOPR Operations Manager Isaac Hutton, “and we think, well, of course, somebody wants to ride a bike to this bus stop, hop on a bus to their next destination.”

This has worked in other cities. According to a study by the National Institute of Transportation and Communities in 2013, when more bikes were placed in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, ridership went up more than 50 percent.

“This is about creating a continuum so that someone can potentially take a bus, hop off, get on a bike for that last mile,” said Rochester City Council member Mitch Gruber.

“I want to be clear,” he added, “the map is not done yet. There is still a lot more work we have to do to build more stations.”

Smith believes the new hubs will give residents struggling to get to work a new opportunity.

“I think folks got to keep jobs without transportation, and HOPR being able to provide scooters and e-bikes will allow them to keep that job, will allow them to pay their bills, will allow them to put food on the table and clothe their children, because they have access to transportation,” he said.

While there are more bikes and scooters on the streets right now, they will be removed for the season in mid-November, returning in April.