Re: [TheThinkTank] Community Partners Bike Library
Hi Jason,
Congratulations. The City of Boulder is looking to start a public paid bike program--similar to Velib in Paris, most likely-- sometime soon. They've scheduled a roundtable discussion about it next week, I believe.
I won't be at the meeting with the city, but I was at a previous, not-open-to-the-public meeting with some city staff, when we went over concerns about a potential project here.
We did a little research, and I wasn't convinced--nor am I now--that these programs are sustainable in a long term way (more than 2 or 3 years.) I think the maintenance and transport of bikes (from the bottoms of hills to the tops) is more expensive than the program can bring or has brought in any previous program that I'm aware of.
Of course, if I'm wrong, I would ABSOLUTELY love to hear about success stories. I'm not talking about first or second generation public bike programs. "First generation" would be the traditional "free bike" programs, where bikes are fixed and just left around busy places for people to use for free. "Second generation" public bike programs are the ones where you have one main check out and check in point. Similar to how one would rent a bike from a bike shop. You wouldn't be able to turn it in across town. I mean the third generation, or "check a bike out from various kiosks around town and turn them in at another kiosk across town" model. Of course, third generational models are all still new enough that they've not been around long enough to have been proven workable or sustainable.
Do keep us posted with how it goes with Sibley and the bikes and the process. I'm sure documenting the process will be valuable for other groups looking to do similar work.
Thanks, and good luck!
josh.
On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 2:41 PM, Stuart O Anderson soa@ri.cmu.edu wrote:
The Bike Library Program at Sibley is not a bike share program. It's more like a way to get bikes to people who need em in a very targeted way while working with other community organizations. BUT as far as bike share programs, part of that Pilot Program federal money got allocated to these folks http://www.niceridemn.com/. should be interesting to see how it works works, i'm skeptical about how it will work in a medium density city like mpls (compared to a high density city like paris). time will tell. and thanks wanda for your input! we're learning as we go (we being not me, i'm taking the winter off :P )
Alicia Sibley Bike Depot St. Paul, MN
On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 4:54 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 7:49 PM, Alicia Dvorak aliciadvorak@gmail.comwrote:
Now THIS I know is sustainable. Way to go!
It will be interesting. We'll be keeping an eye out. Definitely keep us posted if anything major comes down...
Good luck moving forward with it all. I regret that I got to bikebike on Friday, and missed the Sibley visit.
josh.
Hey Josh, want to do an interview tomorrow about ghost bikes and other good stuff? I forgot your number, what is it? Nick
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-----Original Message----- From: veganboyjosh@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:12:28 To: The Think Tankthethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Community Partners Bike Library
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