BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I hate to be a pessimist, but I don't even trust having my bike locked up on a busy road in this city.

It wouldnt be your bike.. Its like zipcars, for bikes.

It were affordable and made attractive, I would wholly support this. The main issue is still theft and vandalism. Yes I know I'm sure you have to be a subscriber and you would thus be charged some enormous fee/penalty, but I still thing these would pose an issue.

Wasn't this brought up the other day about it in like France and how of the initial run, about 80% of the bikes went either missing or significantly damaged?

it is really cheap--in Denver renting a bike for a day is $5 and for a week is $20. A year long membership is $65.

I am curious about the damage that they might face. Here in Pittsburgh though, you actually can use a bike for free from the lockers on the riverfront trails. I dont think too many people realize that. You can get access to them via Friends of the Riverfront.

@caitlin Here in Pittsburgh though, you actually can use a bike for free from the lockers on the riverfront trails. I dont think too many people realize that. You can get access to them via Friends of the Riverfront.

Wow. I didn't realize that. Where are the lockers? Is there some kind of time limitation?

you just give a copy of your liscence to FOTR and then you get a card to get into the bike lockers. I am not sure if there is much limitation, but i do know they are supposed to be for the river trails.

the lockers are at the heinz lofts and on the south side near the terminal buildings, down by the trails. you can learn more about it here

http://www.friendsoftheriverfront.org/new_pages/community_bike.htm

i used one once. they are total cruisers.

Great thing about this is you can keep entering your zip code or any Pittsburgh zip code as many times as you want. They don't seem to have any cookie tracking mechanism that blocks people from voting more than once.

Ummmmm, not like I tried that or anything....

it is really cheap--in Denver renting a bike for a day is $5 and for a week is $20. A year long membership is $65.

That is the cost for just a membership, if you use a bike for more than 30 minutes, you incur usage fees as well: http://denver.bcycle.com/pricing.aspx

It would cost you $65, plus membership to rent it for a "day" (15ish to 24 hours). I'd only see this as a problem if you ride to a destination where there isn't a station to return your bike and you're on the hook for usage fees the whole time you are there.

Yeah, if you commute or trip was too and from a couple stations, then it seems good, but 30 mins might be a bit short for pittsburgh.. and hour would be better, says from downtown over to point breeze during rush hour.

I have no faith in these programs working. Nice idea, but in real life people suck.

Anecdotally, the CMU senior class officers did this in either 2006 or 2007, although they didn't think it through very well and all the bikes were stolen in a matter of weeks.

I read some of the press about the failing of the Parisian system, 80% of the bikes being stolen or vandalized, but if I remember correctly, the municipal government took the noble position of believing that even so, the program was a success, in that, it reduced traffic congestion, improved pedestrian safety, and in general improved the quality of life in the city. And to boot, the whole program only cost about the same as a couple of kilometers of new road.

Not that I'll ever find it, but I started a thread about this / was fishing for support maybe half a year ago or more, didn't get much reply from it.

Supposedly those theft/vandalism numbers out of Paris are bologna made up by JC Duceaux in order to renegotiate their contract. I've heard the real number is nowhere near 80%.

Great thing about this is you can keep entering your zip code or any Pittsburgh zip code as many times as you want.

Well, then good!

* I want to use one in Oakland - 15213

* I want to use one Downtown - 15222

* I want to use one in Point Breeze - 15208

... etc.

I think I've said something like this before, but I think the way for something like that to work is to have one right at Station Square, even have the Sheraton sponsor it. That's where all the out of townies go, visitors to the Sheraton could rent bikes and pop right out onto the trails and see the town. You could even rent a bike to go to a friggin ball game, instead of those crazy boats.

If they did they could post up a Bike Pgh map at all of the stations and slots so you can take one with you!

Asobi: yep. All the bikes disappeared within a couple of weeks, except a few forlorn ones left waaaaay in the back reaches of campus. Word going around was that most of them ended up in frat house basements. But those bikes were just left unlocked around campus, without even a checkout process.

They started this in DC a few years back right before I moved - they set up a bunch of them right in Chinatown. I wonder how that ended up.

Yes, the Velib bikes in Paris haven't fared very well. But the program is still going strong. I think, like edmonds59 said, the city government still considered it a success. If it was an utter failure, the program wouldn't still be in place. I know many, many people love Velib.

If anyone is interested, Copenhagen Cycle Chic has posted pics of Bici bike usage in Barcelona.

Dear god, as lovely as the 'Burgh is in the spring, I need to travel somewhere so badly I can taste it.

Something just occurred to me, it seems like the euros view the bike as a faster form of walking, rather than a slower form of driving, as we tend to do. Coming at it from that direction sort of explains why they see helmets as so ridiculous.

Imagine, if you will, recommending that everyone wear helmets when running.

In the United States...

Walking: enter the street only in painted areas and only when traffic is diverted via signals away from your direction of travel.

Biking: occupy the street almost exclusively (never riding the sidewalk), frequently occupying the center position in the lane when the lane is not wide enough for cars to safely pass.

Europeans might consider biking a faster form of walking because they have better bike accommodations and separated streets than we do. Until such time as bikes do not occupy the same space in traffic that cars do, I don't think this metaphor makes sense for the majority of the United States.

NO, right, I wasn't suggesting in any way that it applied here, that's just me trying to figure out the difference in mindset.