Alberta Co-op Grocery

Bicycle Sharing

Posted June 22nd, 2010

by Jhan Hochman, Working Owner

Ever since the well-intentioned-but-failed Yellow Bike Project in 1994, at least, Portland has earned accolades as the country’s premier bicycling city . . . its bicycle paths, lanes, boulevards, boxes; bicycle-friendly mass transit; bicycle advocacy groups and programs; bike builders; and its relatively abundant and, in some cases, even heroic bicycle “commuteriat.”  Portland also considered a fancy bike sharing system back in 2008, one that just started in Minneapolis.

The key selling point of Nice Ride Minnesota—a non-profit, launched on June 10 as the nation’s largest bike sharing system—is that bikes do not have to be returned to the site where they were picked up.  Nice Ride’s Phase 1 plan calls for 1,000 bikes distributed among 75 kiosks in downtown Minneapolis, on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus, and in surrounding commercial districts.  The system is made possible by public and private funders including local retailers and businesses who hope to benefit from the increased mobility of Minneapolitans.  A yearly subscription of $60 ($50 for students) includes coupons worth up to $500 to local shops and eateries operating within the service area. The payment system has two parts:

Subscriptions and fees are subject to 7.775% sales tax.

The customer can use a credit card at any Nice Ride station to purchase short-term rides or a 1-year or 30-day subscription. Short-term users are issued an unlocking code; 1-year and 30-day subscribers receive a key.  If there is no space to return the bike, the customer inserts a credit card at a pay station, or enters the number on the back of the key for another 15 free minutes to get to another station.  At all pay stations, the cyclist can check the status of nearby stations to find an available bike dock.

The system, already in place in Montreal, is spreading to Washington state and D.C., as well as London and Melbourne.  Will Portland consider it again?  If so, here’s a warning: bike sharing might lessen walking and use of mass transit more than it decreases driving.

The mother of a proliferating system: http://www.bixi.com/home/

Portland’s investigation of bike share programs: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/portland-biborke-share-program-put-on-hold.php

http://bikeportland.org/2008/06/30/portland-wont-give-up-on-bike-share-system/

http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=50814



Tags: bikes, transportation
Posted in General Information

Holman, Coming and Going

Posted May 5th, 2010

ACG may soon find itself neither between Scylla and Charybdis nor a rock and a hard place, but between one bicycle boulevard to the south, Going Street between Williams and 72nd , and another bicycle boulevard to the north, Holman Street, between MLK and 42nd.  The Going Street project is underway.  The Holman project is at an earlier stage but appears to be . . . coasting.

A bicycle boulevard is a street where bikes have priority, with few stops and where moving cars are relatively scarce and travel relatively slow.  Amenities to encourage bikes include stop signs on feeder streets, designated bike crossings, and speed bumps to discourage cars.

The Going Street project should be completed in May, and even without boulevard status, Holman is already a nice, quiet ride carrying a pedalist past Concordia University and Fernhill Park, locales far more shady with trees than . . . characters.

This brings up at least two considerations, perhaps minor, regarding some bicycle boulevards:  1.) many were already decent bicycling streets before becoming boulevards and  2.) they segregate bikers from drivers, allowing drivers to forget the many (and sometimes committed) people making a real difference.  Would it not be better to simultaneously encourage bikes and, at the same time, put a bit of progressive pressure on drivers?  For example, a bicycle boulevard for Ainsworth, a unique and almost grand residential street with a wide, tree-lined median, was considered for boulevard status instead of Holman.  But while Ainsworth (especially from MLK to 37th) would make a splendid pedalway, boulevard status would interfere with its rather heavy volume of cars both parked and moving.  It is already acceptable to infringe upon drivers through insurance and licensing fees, gas prices and taxes, speed limits, mass transit access, and parking restrictions, but to irritate drivers by encouraging them to “share the road” and “save the planet”?  For that to happen it appears we must all travel that too slow boulevard of progress.

The Project Manager for Bicycle Boulevards is Kyle Chisek, 503-823-7041 email hidden; JavaScript is required

Other bicycle boulevards: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=50518&

Sewers vs. bike boulevards: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/03/portland_city_council_likes_20.html

Tags: bikes, sustainablity, transportation
Posted in General Information