Brenda - Eric said $100,000 is a rounding error in the road budget, which, in
the context of a city that spends in excess of $40million dollars per year to
expand roads ("major projects" which does not include routine maintenance)
when we don't actually have the money to adequately maintain the roads we
have, is a fair statement.I've investigated bike sharing programs quite extensively for my day job, including the Trek/B-cycle model, among others What is being proposed amounts to approximately $2.3 million in infrastructure that Trek/B-cycle is offering to provide for $100,000/year for 3 years, and this is a one-time offer because Trek wants to use Madison to test the operations side of their model (they've already worked out the hardware with the 500 bike B-cycle fleet in Denver). Satya Rhodes-Conway pointed out last night that now is not the best time to spend $300,000 on a bike sharing program, and yes, there are many other things that the city could and probably should spend $300,000 on. But when will it be a good time to spend $2.3 million on this? If we don't buy it now, we may never have it. Satya and Mike Verveer eventually were both convinced of the value of this to sign on as co-sponsors. George - the original red bikes program was scrapped because it wasn't viable. Budget Bicycles trotted out a hundred bikes every spring, and they were lucky to get a handful of them back the following November. That's why "red bikes" are now really "yellow bikes" painted red - i.e. they now require a refundable deposit for the otherwise free long term rental. It's still a great program, but an entirely different one - the difference between leasing a car for six months, or using community car for an hour. Actually, this is more akin to renting a luggage cart at the airport, since you don't even need to be a member before you walk up to a bike station to get a bike. A visitor who arrive in Madison without a car (and Deb Archer of the Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau said last night that's 20% of visitors to Madison) can't just walk up to a community car and use a credit card to reserve it for an hour. The biggest challenge I see is where to put the bikes and stations, since they will be competing with benches, outdoor cafes, and much needed standard bike parking. This is the prevailing problem at UW - we don't have enough room to park all the bikes that come to campus now, and many locations have nowhere to grow. But if we are ever going to have a coordinated bike sharing system - in Madison, at UW, and, apparently, in Middleton (http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_88d176f2-28 28-11e0-a5d2-001cc4c002e0.html), then the time is now or never. Chuck Strawser Pedestrian & Bike Coordinator Commuter Solutions Transportation Services UW-Madison Room 124 WARF 610 Walnut St Madison WI 53726 608-263-2969 www.wisc.edu/trans ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brenda Konkel Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 6:12 AM To: Eric Sundquist Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Bikies] City investing in Rental bikes The confusion over the "parks" issue is because the money is being put in the parks department according to the fiscal note. Why is the money going to parks and not David Dryer's section where the bike coordinator is? And, $100,000 is not a rounding error when there are many services the Mayor couldn't find the money to fund, like ice skating rinks, and community services, and staff for the council, and government television and Arthur Ross's position and on and on and on. In a year of "tough choices" to keep taxes low because of the economy, this is not a small deal. It's 1/10th of the fund that is used to pay for police over time, extra costs for snow plowing and other emergencies. This should be considered with the budget along with all the other city priorities. I'm sure its a great program, but I'm not sure this is the time to be doing it with this money. On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 11:08 PM, Eric Sundquist <[email protected]> wrote: George, with all due respect, wackos don't need a reason to complain about liberals (or about anything else). They killed HSR over the pennies per household operating cost, and nearly killed health care over fictitious death panels. There is nothing you can do to satisfy a wacko. Non-wacko fiscal conservatives, otoh, might realize that that the money here is a rounding error in the road budget, and realize that the benefits to the city and its residents are potentially much greater than $100k per year. B-cycle and other bike-share programs have been great in other cities where, by the way, local sponsors always pay for all or part of the cost. They are not "leisure" bikes, despite Brenda's headline implying they are for park riding. They are mainly for transportation, though I'm sure some people use them for fun as well. You pick one up at one kiosk by your starting point and return it to another kiosk by your destination. That works great with transit; you can come to town on the bus and get to a destination that's not right on the bus line. Minneapolis started its public/private program (not B-cycle, but another vendor) last June, and now it is discussing how to best expand it. Denver's first year was 2010 also, and the results, from a press release: · Short-term Memberships (24-hour kiosk, 24-hour online, 7-day, 30-day) Purchased: 32,922 · Annual Memberships Purchased: 1,784 · B-cycle Rides: 102,981 rides · Miles Ridden: 211,111* Health benefits included: · 6,333,332 calories burned · 1,810 lbs. lost According to a survey of our members, 43.16% of Denver B-cycle trips replaced car trips, resulting in the following environmental and economic benefits: · 312,121 lbs. of carbon emissions avoided · 9,613 lbs. of toxic air pollutants avoided · 15,868 gallons of gasoline not used · $41,256 est. saved on gasoline · $311,126 est. saved on car parking *Average ride of 2.05 miles ________________________________ From: George Perkins <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, January 24, 2011 10:12:39 PM 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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