Applications are available for a new program that will provide electric bicycles to people who live or work in two business districts in Grand Junction.

The City of Grand Junction will offer the Ebike to Work Ownership Program to provide 40 ebikes to residents who live or work in the Horizon Drive Business Improvement District or within the Downtown Development Authority boundary.

Participants must earn at or below 80 percent of the area median income — $46,050 a year for an individual in Mesa County. Qualifying applicants will be required to submit address and income verification with their applications. Housing Resources of Western Colorado will assist in reviewing applications.

Applications for the program are available online in English and Spanish at www.gjcity.org/1358/Ebike-to-Work-Ownership-Program. Paper applications are available from the Community Development Department at  Grand Junction City Hall, 250 N. Fifth St.; Visit Grand Junction,  740 Horizon Drive: the Horizon Drive Business Improvement District office, 2764 Compass Drive; Downtown Development Authority office, 101 S. Third St., Suite 100; and the Western Slope Foodbank of the Rockies, 698 Long Acre Drive.

Once applicants are determined to have met qualifications, ebikes will be presented on a first-come, first-served basis until all 40 have been distributed.

The program will run for one year and include participant surveys at two-, four-, and six-month intervals.

The program will be funded through a $134,000 grant from the Colorado Energy Office Community Access to Electric Bicycles effort.

The grant will fund the purchase of 40 bikes, provide safety and security equipment, offer coordination with a local bicycle retailer and includes the assistance of a team from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The bike retailer will be selected through a request for proposal process. The city will pay that vendor to supply ebikes, safety and security equipment, rider education and safety trainings as well as basic bike maintenance over the course of the program.

Through the relationship with the NREL team, detailed trip travel data will be collected without any attached personally identifying information. That will help city staff understand preferred travel routes as well as assess the effectiveness of the program.

The program will be evaluated to determine how effective ebikes are as a regular mode of transportation for program participants, the viability of ebikes as a larger component of transportation in the city and the effects of ebikes on greenhouse gas emissions. The data will also help city staff understand non-vehicle traffic patterns, connections and sectors of interest for ongoing multimodal mobility efforts.