Frequently
Asked Questions
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about how The Bike Match Network works. If you have a question that's not answered below
please don't hesitate to reach out.What is The Bike Match Network?
The Bike Match Network is a global community of safe streets advocacy organizations, transit agencies, community bike builds and bike shops working together to get as many people on bicycles as possible. The Bike Match Network provides a suite of tools to help you find free bikes and match them with people who really need them right now. We also help you promote your bike match program, streamline communication and logistics and eliminate all of the headaches of building your own bespoke solution.
How does it work?
When someone requests or donates a bike via our intake forms we automatically
send them a confirmation email with next steps and add them to your dashboard where you can make notes, prioritize essential workers and match people up. We also provide tools to filter requests and donations by height and location and are working on a recommendation engine that will make matching donors and recipients even easier.
How much does it cost?
What's required to join
The Bike Match Network?
We need the following to setup a page for your city:
- A high-res logo of your organization in .png, .svg or .jpg format
- An email address to accept incoming requests and donations. (We recommend setting up bikematch@your-organization.org)
- A short, region specific paragraph for your homepage to go under the "learn more" button.
- A custom liability waiver if you want to provide your own. This is optional.
After we receive the above from you we'll set up your page and provide you with a unique login that will allow you to test making requests, donations and matches to ensure everything looks good before you go live.
I'm already running a Bike Match program. Can I still join The Network?
Yes! If you're able to send us a spreadsheet of your requests and donations we should be able to import them into our system.
Contact us to discuss your specific situation and we'll see what we can do.
Is there a demo I can try out?
Yes! We made a live demo that shows how every aspect of the platform works.
Contact us and we'll send you the login.
Can I embed your forms on my site?
Yes! If you have or are able to create a custom bike match page on your website you can easily embed our forms and still use our platform to manage everything. Take a look at how
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition designed a custom bike match page that embeds our forms.
Can I use a custom liability waiver?
Which aspects of the platform
are customizable?
We currently support custom liability waivers, hashtags and minor edits to the emails we send out. We're still a very small team of volunteers but we hope to soon have the resources to allow for full customization of the platform. If you desire a more customized experience than what we currently support
contact us and we'll be happy to see what we can do.
Who owns the data you collect?
You do. At any time you can request an export of all of the data we have for your city and we will make that data available to you in a spreadsheet. We are in the process of adding the ability to export your data directly from your dashboard. While you own the data we collect, we reserve the right to add participants of The Bike Match Network to The Bike Match Network and
Safe Lanes newsletter from which they can opt out of at any time. We hate spam and nefarious email marketing as much as you do. If you have additional questions about our data policy
please contact us.Who created The Bike Match Network and why?
The fundamental goal of The Bike Match Network is to get as many people on bikes as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic and help participants of our program join the global safe streets movement for healthier and more equitable cities.