Bike Share Failures Have L.A. Looking for a Regional Solution

Under Mayor Villaraigosa, Los Angeles made great strides in building a bike-friendly city: a citywide bike plan was passed, bike lanes were built, and a recurring open-streets event was established, all with the support of the mayor. But the Villaraigosa administration made one big mistake in trying to put all of its bike share eggs in one untested basket. 

A year and a half after the city's first bike-share network was supposed to launch, "Bike Nation is on the ropes and even Villaraigosa allies concede the agreement was a well-intentioned mistake," writes Damien Newton. "Los Angeles watched while its peer cities New York, Chicago and San Francisco/Bay Area launched their own bike share systems while Bike Nation was uprooting its partial pilot system in Anaheim."

With Villaraigosa out of office, Mayor Garcetti is moving on, with plans to develop a regional system. "On Thursday, the Metro Executive Management and Audit Committee will hear a motion for staff to study best practices and recommend a plan of action for a regional bike share system," reports Newton.

"The motion calls for Metro staff to report back at the January 2014 meeting, in just three months, with report to the Board at the with the results of a review of the bike share industry, including a business case analysis, and recommendations on proceeding with a Request for Proposals to implement a regional bicycle share program."