Here Are the 3 Best Philly Bike Share Apps

The best tools to find out which Indego stations are closest to you and whether they have any bikes or open docks available.

Photo via Indego

Photo via Indego

Philadelphia is in love with its new bike share program. There have been more than 100,000 rides here since Indego launched in April, and we reached that milestone faster than Washington, D.C., Boston and Denver did.

But compared to other cities, Philadelphia doesn’t have that many bike share apps available just yet. That’s sure to change in the coming months as the program becomes older and national bike share apps add Philly into the mix.

In the meantime, these are the best apps to find out which Indego stations are closest to you and whether they have any bikes or open docks available.

B-Cycle Now

This is currently our favorite bike share app. When you fire it up, you can see all of the bike share stations across the city, as well as where you’re located. Click on one of the stations, and the app tells you its exact location as well as the number of bikes and docks that are open. You can also hone in on the station closest to you by clicking on “nearby stations.” The downside? It’s a little cluttered. And you might get this app confused with the original B-cycle app, which sucks.

Philly Bike Dock

If you’re more into Frank Stella than Willem de Kooning, this is the app for you. It’s very pared-down. It displays the closest bike stations in order, and how many bikes and docks are free at each of them. That’s pretty much it. Which is great when you’re in the exact right place that you’re starting your journey. If you’re not, it’s annoying.

The Ultimate Bike Share Map

OK, this isn’t a phone app. But it’s lovely. The site opens up with a map of the world, as well as data on the number of docking stations (15,011 as of 12:40 p.m.), docks (306,976), bikes in docks (124,323), and bikes in use (13,921) there are on the globe. Zoom in on Philly, and you can see the same big-picture stats there. You can also view the locations of the city’s bike stations and the number of open bikes and docks they each have on tap.

One last note: Over the course of a few days, we checked on stations throughout the city to measure the accuracy of each of the three apps. They were only off once — and all three were off in the same way (they said there were 10 bikes and 6 open docks available at a South Philly location, when there were actually 9 bikes and 7 open docks). That ain’t too shabby.

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