I saw a travel show about Trondheim Norway. They've had bike sharing there for several years (they also have a cool system that pushes bikes up steep hills). You put coins in slots to get the bikes and get the change back when you turn it into another kiosk. It's cheap. The bikes are not the best, and from what I read here. this would be true here too. I see your point about the machines being broken into. Though that hasn't happened so much with parking meters. And would there be a danger of thieves getting credit info if they break into these machines? - Genie Ogden
--- On Tue, 1/25/11, Robbie Webber <[email protected]> wrote: From: Robbie Webber <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Bikies] City investing in Rental bikes To: "Mitchell Nussbaum" <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 1:04 PM There have been some very good questions asked, some of which I had myself yesterday, some still to be answered. People below already addressed some of this while I was writing, but I'm just going to send my whole post anyway. I urged people with opinions or questions to come to the PBMVC meeting to comment, or bring up their questions. Or, if you really only want answers or are curious, watch the PBMVC meeting on City Channel or streaming on-line. I can't answer all the questions, nor do i want to be responsible for being the spokesperson for B-Cycle, but there are a few I can tackle. 1. This really won't compete with bike shops, in the same way that Community Car doesn't really compete with Enterprise. One is for short trips and last-minute need to run errands, while the other is for longer rentals. 2. B-Cycle (and other bike sharing programs) also allow you to return the bike to a different location than where you rented it. This is very useful if you want to go from your office in the Capitol area down to Memorial Union, the Kohl Center, or over to UW Hospital. You only need to get there, drop off the bike, and then deal with the next trip when you are ready. Maybe someone is picking you up, or you are taking the bus home, or you can walk from that location. How many times have I wished I had a bike to go just a one-way trip! 3. The bikes at bike shops are also far nicer. The B-Cycle bikes are really very utilitarian. The representative from Trek actually used the word "tank." What you rent at Budget, Willy St, Yellow Jersey, or Machinery Row is a basic, but decent mountain bike or road bike. You could go do the Cap City Trail on a bike shop rental. I doubt you'd want to go for a ride of more than a few miles on a B-Cycle bike. 4. Many of us on this list ride our bikes all the time, so we may not need a shared bike to do errands or see the city. But many others do not have a bike with them downtown, and would welcome the convenience of being able to pick up a bike quickly and close to their current location. People who drive, carpool, van pool, or bus in to work may want to run to a meeting by bike, meet someone for lunch, or pick up a few things at the store after work. Visitors can get from their meeting or hotel to restaurants, events, or tourist sites. They can also just check out the downtown by bike. 5. Credit cards mean no change in the machine, meaning less likely target for theft and vandalism, no need to come empty the machine, and fewer moving parts. Yeah, it means if you don't have a credit or debit card, you can't use it, but I can really see the business sense behind that decision. As Kevin pointed out, it also cuts down on theft and damage of the bikes. 6. Affordability. I believe there is a $10 initial membership, which is sort of a drag for people that just want to try it out, or for visitors that are unlikely to be able to use the system for more than one or two days. I'm going to confirm this tonight. I also didn't get the full list of charges, because I was busy typing when that slide came up. I think it was $1 for the first 1/2 hour, and maybe a couple dollars per hour in general. Again, I'll need to confirm tonight. OK, I have to go do other things. I'll probably post some of this as a blog tomorrow, after getting more info. In the meantime, and since the Red Bike/Yellow Bikes have come up again, I'll direct you to a blog I did in December: What ever happened to the Red Bikes?http://frontporchcoffeetalk.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-ever-happened-to-red-bikes-program.html Robbie Webber Bike Walk Madison Steering Committee www.bikewalkmadison.org Join our group on Facebook! On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Mitchell Nussbaum <[email protected]> wrote: I have a few questions about this. Why only credit cards? This will limit who can use the bikes. Would the bikes be out year-round? Some people will ride bikes in the winter. If they are not out year-round, when will they be out? The GPS systems seem a little strange. If someone's in a hurry to get somewhere using a bike, will they really be looking at that? It is a lot of money, especially when the city is having a hard time covering other things. This is a nice program, but why was it brought up so suddenly? Bike shops already rent bikes. And there are boat rentals in a couple of the parks which benefit the city and I believe the city does not pay the companies to do it, the company pays rent TO the city.
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