How to make bike sharing happen
The blog of The Philadelphia Inquirer's Editorial Board.
How to make bike sharing happen
With a feasibility study in hand that says Philadelphia is well suited for a bike-sharing program, Mayor Nutter should take the next logical step of soliciting proposals to launch the program.
A report from the William Penn Foundation issued last week recommends starting the program — similar to car-sharing plans — with 1,700 bicycles at 20 stations across Center City and parts of South, West and North Philadelphia.
The report found that Philadelphia’s geography, population density, commuting habits, and weather closely tracks several cities where bike sharing has taken hold.
Nutter has vowed to make the city the greenest in the nation. Bike sharing is a program that would bolster that goal, while generating lots of goodwill and national attention for the city.
It’s especially attractive to young people. In a city trying to attract and retain college students, the bike-sharing program signals to them that Philly is a cool place to be.
Bike sharing in European cities links commuters to mass transit and also provides tourists an inexpensive way to explore.
At a time when the federal government plans to invest heavily in bike trails around this region, an initiative that would have more people traveling on two wheels makes even more sense.
The mayor broke new ground by adding dedicated east-west bike lanes to two streets in Center City, complementing a network of 200 miles of roads with designated lanes. The city also plans to explore other cycling infrastructure improvements.
Of course, at an annual cost of at least $4.4 million — $11 million if the program went citywide with 4,500 bikes — a city funded bike-sharing effort isn’t likely to happen any time soon.
Rather than let a good idea go to waste, perhaps there is a business model that would work for a private company to run the program on a scaled down basis that serves at least Center City.
The city’s tourist industry could explore offering a bike program for visitors. Or maybe the area universities and other large institutions could join together to launch a program.
There are a lot of possibilities for some creative thinking. The bike-sharing program seems like a good idea in need of some leadership to help make it happen.
There is a bike sharing program in Paris called "Velib" that started in 2007. The program was paid for without the use of city funds. Instead, Paris sold all billboard advertising rights within the city to EU advertising giant JCDecaux. JCDecaux, in turn, paid for the program.— c.montyburns- On second thought, maybe the Parisian plan isn't as successful as I originally thought... http://environmentdebate.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/velib-extreme-the-paris-cycle-scheme-update/— c.montyburns
- Or... maybe the JCDecaux is simply trying to squeeze more profit from the city... http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/02/12/reports-of-velibs-demise-greatly-exaggerated/— c.montyburns
Velib works great in Paris, and it would be great to have here, too. But the way it's for in Paris is not so great. JCDecaux gets permission to put up a LOT of billboards. Philadelphia already has more of those than it needs. JCDecaux doesn't have to open its books, so if it costs a lot less to run the program than the billboards are worth, then tough luck citizens. If the bike sharing costs more than the billboards are worth, JCDecaux can renegotiate or walk away. Bike sharing is good, but selling our soul to a billboard company and letting them run bike sharing as a black box is not so good.- FYI - The local CityRyde Bike Share Experts are here to help! jason@cityryde.com www.cityryde.com— jhsmeinzer
