This piece from Streetsblog San Francisco looks at the city's recently announced plans for a bike sharing program and why the 50-bike pilot is likely to fail.
"My hopes were high when Mayor Newsom announced that San Francisco would join the nearly 100 cities around the world that have started bike sharing. But now they are dashed."
"How grand a system will San Francisco have? 50 bikes. To the tune of $1 million for start up and $500,000 annually for upkeep!"
"When Washington DC debuted their system last year with 120 bikes, their department of transportation immediately regretted that they had not added many more. As Alice Kelly of the District DOT said to Streetfilms when they interviewed her, 'Knowing what we know now, we would've launched it bigger.'"
"Mayor Newsom has been accused of press-releasing and grandstanding before, but this has to be among his most exquisite offerings. He's embracing a transit trend that all "green" mayors must, but he's implementing it in such paltry fashion that at best it will be inconsequential at replacing short car trips with bike trips; at worst it will create a bunch more enemies of bicycles in a city that already boasts its fair share."
Read the full story: The Impending Failure of San Francisco’s Pilot Bike Share Program
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