Thanks Robbie. -india
On 01/25/11, Robbie Webber wrote: > 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(http://www.bikewalkmadison.org) > Join our group on Facebook! > > > > > > > On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Mitchell Nussbaum > <[email protected] <[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. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org -- India Viola Stretton Lab 115 Zoology Research 1117 W. Johnson St. Madison, WI 53706 608.262.3336 "How can we learn from our mistakes if we don't first acknowledge them?" -Anonymous Corporations are not citizens. Money is not speech. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
