I am also grateful for the bikes donated for the yellow and red bike programs (thanks to Yellow Jersey for the yellows, and was it Budget Bike for the reds?) but every year the attrition rate on those bikes is horrible. They either get trashed or "privatized" by some rider who realizes they can have a bike for the price of a bike lock.
The good & bad of Trek's rental program is that it is designed to keep the bikes on the road. That unfortunately requires that the person taking the bike establish financial responsibility via credit card. The payback being that the bikes won't disappear. Much. Here's hoping the red/yellow bike programs will revive and thrive for the credit deprived. Of course, this would all make more sense if they put a bike rental terminal at a spot with high demand for local transportation, like, say, a high speed rail terminus? Nah, that's crazy talk. ;) ------------ Patrick Lenon From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:12:39 -0600 Subject: Re: [Bikies] City investing in Rental bikes I remember the original red bike program, even did some intermittent volunteer work getting junkers ready to ride. I occasionally rode red bikes (despite having my own bikes). They were somewhat handy and I was always pleased to see someone else riding them around. I paid real estate taxes then, and even more so now. In these times of economic stress, all of the regional taxing authorities raised taxes. Ouch! The higher taxes combined with a right-wing noise machine helped elect a tea-bagger Republican Gestapo State and Federal government and could tip the vote against many other progressive, needed programs locally, regionally or nationally in the coming years. (The RTA’s going to try to get a ¼¢ sales tax referendum to help fund needed bus service - I can hear the gears grinding already on that one). Giving the right-wingnut wackos another reason to say “see, I told you so, those liberals are at it again” at this time is just plain stoopid. Instead of spending $100,000 city money this year, $100,000 the following year, and another $100,000 the year after that for shiny-new credit-card only leisure Trek bikes, let’s just revive the original red bike program at half the cost or less. Local bike shops and volunteer organizations could put together a proposal… Or perhaps keep Arthur Ross’s position in the city budget and fund a bike/ped manager AND a bike/ped coordinator city position instead? _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
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