Bike Share Programs

This program is wildly popular here in DC. On par with RG3. Has been for a few years now. The bikes are ugly as hell, but you see them everywhere. It's a public-private partnership. You'll find them in neighborhoods all over DC. And now it's expanding into Virginia and Maryland. I have my own bike, so I don't really need it. But if I was one of those recent college grads lived in a shit ass studio apartment that cost 1200 a month to rent, I'd probably use it too, since I wouldn't have room to store the bike and certainly couldn't afford a car. DC is building more and more bike-only lanes on some of the really busy parts of downtown. The program absolutely works here.

 

Here's the map.

http://citibikenyc.com/stations

The most glaring parts to me are -- nothing above 59th Street. I just don't get that. The Upper East and West Sides are where actual people live. Then over in Brooklyn, nothing south of Atlantic Ave. That one really boggles me. If I was aiming a shared bike program at residential NY, I would have guessed the widest-spread adoption would be right in the heart of Cobble Hill / Boerum Hill / Carroll Gardens and Park Slope. It's basically middle income people (maybe a bit higher income in Park Slope) who aren't very old, by and large. And mixed in with families. And spread out just enough so bikes would actually be a good alternative to public transportation.

 

If you couldn't, I don't think it would be so popular. It's not just a fad. It's a staple in DC. Very, very popular. Sometimes they might be all out at one particular location, but they're all over DC now. It's not hard to find another one nearby. It started off in select spots but is growing pretty rapidly now. Lots of parts of the city. Virginia and Maryland, too. They also put them near subway stops to make it even more convenient. I'm not going to say it's been flawless from day one. But it's an accepted and depended on form of transportation here. You see these bikes everywhere downtown. I'm not saying "it's a success, but..." or "it's a success, as long as you consider...". I'm saying it's a success in DC. Period. People use it. They love it. It's growing pretty rapidly.

 

Jack, In NY, I suspect that it will be a relatively small, but overly visible, thing relative to its actual usage. 6,000 bikes is a lot of bikes, but relative to NY's millions of people, it's not that big. The stations are very noticeable, though, and Bloomberg has hyped the hell out of it, so I think it is getting outsized attention relative to what it is.

I'd love for this thing to be a success. At this relatively small scale, I think it can be. It just needs to find a niche of people who will make use of the bikes. I think in tourists alone, in some of the places they chose to concentrate, it can do well.

The NIMBY complaints I pointed out are real. I suppose they will fade in a few months when people get used to it. But just in my neighborhood, I know there are at least two buildings suing the city because they stuck a bike rack right in front. I also know that to the extent that any parking spots were lost -- and several city council members were all over that -- it has gotten people worked up. Then there were misc. things. There were a bunch of food cart vendors who largely served one building in lower in Manhattan and their spot was snatched by a bike rack. I saw a story about them protesting outside the DOT. And this one was ridiculous -- they put a bike rack about 150 feet from Frank's Bike Shop on the lower east side (it's an institution -- been there for decades), and he makes a decent percentage of his income renting bikes. That is now a thing of the past.

Anytime you do something different -- especially if it takes a bit of public space -- people complain. I am sure there were complaints when they were doing the construction for the original subway lines. Just the work they have been doing for the new 2nd Avenue line the last few years has destroyed a lot of businesses and it has been a huge source of friction. But when that line is up and running (if it ever happens) and the Upper East Side gets served subway service, a lot of people will be happy.

In the case of these bikes, it's not that huge of an inconvenience to anyone. The stations are actually pretty interesting. They are self-powered with a solar panel, mostly made of plastic and can be dismantled and moved within hours. I am not sure this program itself is going to be a big deal in a place like NY the way the mayor is hyping it -- it is not going to turn the streets here into a Scandanavian city or Shanghai -- but I wouldn't mind being proved wrong.

The thing I will be most interested to see is what the reaction is when we get our first death of someone on one of these bikes. It's gonna happen eventually.

As for the rack outside my door, when I got back yesterday (relatively early) it was full. From what someone told me, they did redistribute bikes during the day and a truck came and put bikes in there. Which shows planning. It was rainy all day yesterday, though, and at around 4 (when I got back home), the bike rack was filled with bikes. The tourists weren't milling around the way they were on memorial day. When I went out this morning at about 4 a.m. the bike rack was filled, too. But I wouldn't have expected the bikes to be in use. The little I was out yesterday, I didn't see anyone on any of the bikes. But, as I said, it was rainy. It will take time to see how this gets adopted. The mayor is going to sell it as a success, regardless of adoption. But it will be easy to tell. Just by, 1) If anyone I know actually uses it, and 2) if you actually see the billboards with wheels in motion. Which brings another thought. From what I understand Citibank put $40 million into the naming rights on this thing. I can't overstate how much logo display they are getting out of it. The stations are very noticeable and they are Citi billboards. And the bikes themselves are billboards with wheels. That could end up being one of the best advertising / marketing investments in a long time.