One of the "whereas"es of the resolution states that the program would be "an important amenity and means of transportation for City residents, workers and visitors; bring visitors to our downtown; [and] displace car traffic and take pressure off of downtown parking." If the motivation behind this move is transportation, not recreation, then it shouldn't be handled by the Parks Division, IMHO.
And if it's about transportation, then I'd rather see the money go to Madison Metro or to improving bike lanes/paths - the investment there would have a bigger impact and benefit people from across the economic spectrum - actually, it would probably benefit more people, period. Short-term bike rentals are cool, but wouldn't be my top priority for Madison, and certainly not for public funding. In cities like New York and Paris, the small size of apartments is a real obstacle to bike ownership, and these rentals make sense for people who don't have space to park a bike when they get home. In Madison, most apartments aren't *that* small. And rentals would be expensive compared to buying a used bike at St. Vinny's, borrowing a red bike from Budget, or finding one in the dumpster. So it seems the main benefit would be to tourism, which means the program would be competing with existing bike rental programs. It seems like Machinery Row and others who do short-term rentals should have an opportunity to bid. But I'm still really confused as to why the city should be funding bike rentals in the first place. For that amount of money, you could give a crappy-but-workable bike to 1,000 people a year. Just to be clear, I'm not against short-term bicycle rentals or against Trek. But I just don't see this as an infrastructure improvement. I see it more along the lines of Community Car. I think Community Car is cool, but I don't think the city should fund it. Guess I'm just a tea-bagger. Kathryn Kingsbury www.kathrynkingsbury.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynkingsbury Skype: kathryn.kingsbury ________________________________ From: Mitchell Nussbaum <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, January 24, 2011 3:52:50 PM Subject: [Bikies] City investing in Rental bikes Brenda Konkel is not happy that the city is giving $300,000 to Trek for bike rentals in parks: http://www.forwardlookout.com/2011/01/giver-300k-to-trek-to-rent-bikes-in-madison-parks/8697 What do others think? I think the program is a good idea. But it says people have to pay with a credit card, and not everyone has one. - Genie Ogden
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