Hello folks, here's just a heads up that Clear Channel, mega-
advertising giant, may soon have Boston city contracts and be running
a large scale "bike-sharing" fleet with stations, including of
course, advertising on all surfaces. These Clear Channel
negotiations are very new and are underway in hundreds of cities,
maybe yours. (check out http://bike-sharing.blogspot.com/)
Mayor Bloomberg of NYC went to Paris and checked out their new city- wide bike-rental systems and wants the same in NYC.
Hooray to more people using bikes! Hooray to greater interest in
addressing the ills of automobile choked cities and environmental
foolishness and overconsumption! Boo to "permanent sidewalk or
vehicle defacement by ads touting the same corporate culture of over-
consumption that got us in this mess" in the first place! (ie: Clear
Channel advertising. The quote is taken from Steve Stollman, full
text below.)
Have you heard about this?
Also bike activist Steve Stollman is selling a building in NYC, and
wants to reinvest this money in real estate to buy buildings for
community bike orgs, maybe yours! (ideally outside of the high-
priced cities of NYC and Boston). He would then work to sell these
buildings to the bike orgs over an extended period of time so that
they eventually own their spaces. I've pasted some text about that
in further below. If you're interested you should check in with
Steve at SteveStollman@LightWHEELS.com
-Arik Bikes Not Bombs
From www.lightspeed.com, Steve Stollman, NYC
Bike-sharing
Handlebars and pedals make bikes into three-dimensional objects. If
these protrusions can be flattened to the body of the bike when not
in use, the vehicle is about 6” wide and much easier to both store
and transport in the close company of other people. Current
technology permits this modification to be performed safely and
conveniently.
There would need to be a large number of somewhat-identical bikes
using variations of this simple design, with adjustable seat heights,
to keep initial costs low while providing for the fastest and widest
proliferation. At most times, these sturdy bikes will be fine. Buying
a shipload will reduce their cost to such a low figure that a few
months of advertisements, removable after all costs are covered,
could finance the entire exercise. Ads for one month a year or less
could finance ongoing top-level maintenance. If properly designed
they can be free to use and possibly not need to be locked at special
locations as current systems usually demand. http://bike-
sharing.blogspot.com
Permanent sidewalk or vehicle defacement by ads touting the same
corporate culture of over-consumption that got us in this mess is not
necessary. We can not afford to allow the bottom-line calculus of
Clear Channel and the other billboard-industry giants, to decide for
us how we share our bikes. Across this country, before this massive
invasion of profit-driven, probably sub-standard systems take hold,
Community-based bike collectives and other people-friendly
individuals and organizations, including some local bike businesses,
must begin to assume these responsibilities.
This will not destroy the existing bike business, because shops can
help create, maintain and upgrade the fleet continuously. Many people
will want their own machine regardless, and far more people will be
riding all the time. When seas rise so do boats. Paris today is a
good example.
A second system needs to be established, designed and built, which is
comprised of unconventional vehicles, multi-passenger, weather-
protected, electric-motor assisted, art-inspired and plain fun.
Access to this fleet would need to be restricted and require credit-
card id, GPS location devices, special maintenance and a fee-system
to help pay for it. Some support should come from the government
since it will provide many benefits to the public as a whole, the way
other publicly-accessible transit systems ordinarily do. Self-support
is ideal and achievable. This could enable a much more creative and
adventurous effort than one sponsored by a corporation or government.
It is also being suggested that all this be done in tandem with a
local-neighborhood based, ambitious and creative system, for sharing
rides and vehicles of all kinds. This facility can also accept tax-
deductible contributions, some as valuable as cars etc., and generate
income from the small fees earned for expediting these much needed
various transportation-related companion efforts to reduce traffic.
Anchored by a robust and growing community bike effort, a strong
framework for positive change can be constructed. If a substantial
decrease in the number of cars on the road is achieved this will also
help in the improvement of roadway safety for cyclists and others.
The soonest path to the safest and most appropriate and convenient
system with the least expensive continuous operating costs, that also
rocks, is the goal. The proliferation of these new forms of transport
will also require the taming of our highways back into the streets
that they were intended to be. We must demand civility and respect
from large and dangerous Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)-Age
vehicles, and the complete eradication of their people-unfriendly
behavior. The reward for this change will be an historic flowering of
enjoyable, human-scale, responsible and healthful transportation in
our cities and towns.
SteveStollman@LightWHEELS.com | 212 431 0600 | 49 East Houston
Street NYC 10012
Bikes and Property
I want to invest my profit from selling a property in Manhattan to
help enable 10 bike shops to establish themselves in their own
spaces. Each will each be given an option to buy the space they are
renting after a few years, to enable them to grow more rapidly and to
own and benefit directly from the improvements they make to their
properties and businesses. In some cases this would involve buying
existing locations, in others it would mean finding a great local
building for sale at a good price in a good location. (As each group
is able to purchase its building, the money paid is made available to
another group in another state so that they may be able to purchase a
building etc...
If this property investment methodology helps in bringing forth
better means for bike store owners to control their own futures and
expand their businesses, others may decide to invest this way as
well. As mortgage credit tightens, the strength of this industry, in
the face of $3+ gas and frightening obesity and diabetes rates, could
entitle it to an alternate form of investment capital.
There are many people today on every stratum of society who are
starting to come to terms with the damage being done to a seemingly
robust, but actually dangerously fragile, ecosystem. The central role
of inappropriate transportation is conspicuous in that picture. They
want their kids to be healthy, have a future and love them and they
want to have a cleaner conscience. At the same time they want their
investments to be sound financially. A program such as this could
satisfy all of their needs, while giving bike stores some valuable
additional leverage against overly-aggressive landlords, and a better
shot at economic justice and self-determination.
It is also my intention to use this opportunity to help gain more
visibility through these stores for hybrid human-powered/electric-
assisted vehicles, including safe, road-worthy and weather-protected
wheelchairs. In an aging population, many stores may find this to be
one of the most high-growth elements of their businesses and one of
the most gratifying.
Meanwhile re-defining cycling as basic transportation, not just a
pleasurable, recreational activity, will help drive the
infrastructure improvements that we so badly need. These upgrades, a
flood of new and more utilitarian machines, and the dramatic
increases in bicycle and other lightweight vehicle use that they will
trigger, will finally begin to bring this vital activity its due
respect.