http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/montreal-inaugurates-continents- most-ambitious-bike-sharing-program/
Montreal seems to have overcome most of the flaws of Paris' system, mainly by charging user fees, but also by running it themselves (the city's parking utility, that is) and also by relying on solar power (so that stations can be moved according to demand, or removed for the winter, etc) rather than a connection to the grid that must be created and maintained. Chuck Strawser University of Wisconsin-Madison UW Commuter Solutions 124 WARF bldg 610 Walnut Street Madison WI 53726 608-263-2969 www.wisc.edu/trans ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of STRAWSER, Charles Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 10:49 AM To: Troy Thiel; [email protected] Subject: [Bikies] bike renting works fine,but not bike sharing [was: Taking positive steps] From: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/paris-bike-sharing-system-succum bing-to-vandals/ : Nearly all of the original [Paris Velib] bikes have been replaced. At an estimated cost of roughly $500 each, the cost for replacing the entire fleet of 20,000 bikes would run about $10 million. According to the BBC, Remi Pheulpin, JCDecaux's director general, told Le Parisien that replacement and maintenance costs are "so high that a private business cannot handle it alone, especially as it's a problem of public order. If we want the Velib set-up to keep going, we'll have to change the business model." I'd love to see a system downtown where visitors can rent bicycles the way travelers arriving at the airport can rent cars. But for it to be sustainable, it has to be run like a business, and rates charged for the bike that cover the business' costs to maintain (and replace) the bikes on an ongoing basis, just as rental car companies replace their cars. What I don't understand is why some folks advocate bike sharing (as a solution to what? the insurmountable barrier of a bicycle's initial cost? I can trash-pick a ridable bike in this town, and anyone can get a used ridable bike from a bike shop for as little as $150), as opposed to building infrastructure on which people can ride and park the bicycles they own. After all, we (mostly) build transportation and parking infrastructure for the benefit of people using their private motor vehicles (the efforts of my colleagues advocating carpooling and carsharing notwithstanding). Chuck Strawser University of Wisconsin-Madison UW Commuter Solutions 124 WARF bldg 610 Walnut Street Madison WI 53726 608-263-2969 www.wisc.edu/trans ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Troy Thiel Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:09 PM To: Eric Westhagen; VIOLA, INDIA R; [email protected] Cc: BikiesSubmissions Subject: [Bikies] Taking positive steps This is one http://bcycle.com/ Why can't we do this here? I road one yesterday at the International Downtown Conference in Milwaukee...it's a sweeeeeeeeeet ride! Platinum Bike implementation anyone? Troy Thiel Chair, City of Madison's Downtown Coordinating Committee __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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