[mdittmar]

That's a shame.

[sagar]

So sad. NOT!

[Blue Jays]

Bike sharing works pretty well in other cities.
Too bad it couldn't be successful in that location.

[PAR35]

The libs are pushing bike share for Dallas. Maybe they can sell the setup to them.

[oldplayer]

Why doesn’t Seattle just raise taxes and fund it fully?

[Reno89519]

That was $8,500 per bike, including the stations. No wonder cities are broke.

[kvanbrunt2]

But it had to deal with a challenging environment — a hilly, rainy city with a mandatory helmet law and a downtown area clogged with traffic and with few protected bikeways.>>> seems to be working in philly and i did notice some in DC. They are everywhere and there must be 1000 bikes just from the locations that i observe or know about. Philly is flat and semi bike friendly with no helmet law. I saw one in the middle of the vine street/ben f bridge/i95 access area crunched. i bike to work and use bike lanes and sidewalks were the buses and taxis are nasty.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

They local Touchy-Feely democrat city government tried bike sharing.

In just a few weeks the expensive bikes were gone.

Liberals never learn.

[BenLurkin]

How much taxpayer money was squandered on the Pronto boondoggle?

[aquila48]

"Scott Kubly, the city’s transportation director, argued that a city takeover would allow Seattle to build a bigger, broader network that would attract more riders. In January 2016, the city was told that Pronto was insolvent and would shut down if the city didn’t buy it. The city complied in March 2016, buying Pronto for $1.4 million. Kubly, in his previous job, had been president of the company that operated Pronto. He later admitted to an ethics violation and agreed to a $10,000 settlement for failing to get an ethics waiver or recuse himself from the city’s launch and purchase of Pronto." And the guy is still Transportation Director?? The holier-than-thou crowd is as corrupt as TV preachers.

[aquila48]

“SDOT has spoken with cities including Spokane; Pittsburgh; Tulsa, Oklahoma.; and Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts, about buying the Pronto equipment, Rowe said.”

Portland is not on the list?

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Seattle, where the Marxists can ruin anything.

[husky ed]

Maybe they should sink another billion into the lightrail.

Ed

[vooch]

I am a avid Citibike user in NYC. It’s a great and simple way to get around the city. In the rain, in the snow, all the time.

Citibike sees 60,000 trips during a peak weekday. The average Citibike is used 6 times every day.

cycling is really the only way to eliminate traffic congestion in cities. A person on a bike takes up 1/10 the roadway space as a private car. Citibike is great because I never need to mess with parking.

[sphinx]

Bikeshare programs seem to be working very well and growing rapidly around the country. I don't know why Seattle would be an exception, but from the story it sounds as if the city wasn't really committed to it and failed to do the things needed to create a viable system.

Here in DC and in several of the close-in suburban jurisdictions, the system is very well used, at least in the neighborhoods with which I'm familiar. I've never seen a detailed analysis of the ridership, but two key groups are commuters, who use bikeshare to get from a convenient neighborhood location to a metrorail stop, and high school students, who also integrate bikeshare with metro. To make this work, or course, you need a bikeshare station at every metrorail stop. This has been done. You also need a sufficient density of bike stations in high density residential and downtown areas to make the system reliable and convenient enough for people to buy in. But once a jurisdiction is over that critical mass issue, the system is great.

The story also says Seattle has a mandatory helmet law and very few bike lanes. That sounds like two good ways to self-sabotage a system.

I got a membership for my older daughter when she started high school. She carpooled in the morning but the kids were all coming home at different times due to various school activities, so they took the bus and/or metrorail. A properly designed bikeshare system is a terrific complement to those systems. It's a good way to get around downtown as well. There is no charge for rides under 30 minutes, and if your destination is relatively close, bikeshare is much easier than driving and often faster than hailing a cab.

I'm surprised that a crunchy granola place like Seattle wasn't able or willing to figure it out. They are common enough around the country that the formula really isn't a mystery anymore.

[Covenantor]

With Seattle weather and topography the intent of essentially communal property was well meant, just inadequately implemented.

Being green isn't easy.

If only they had provided a fleet of these...

At a piddling cost of only $15k the hill climbing and weather problem would have been solved with the added bonuses of car pooling (2 occupants), room for shopping bags, and in a pinch housing for Seattles army of homeless bums. As well as subsidizing an eco-friendly auto manufacturer.

Socialism works every time it's tried by the right people with sterling intentions.

Can't wait for the Car-Share Teslas to appear....whirrr...whirr... Damn, WTH pissed in the car!

[jmaroneps37]

Just something else that was killed by liberal over regulation.

[Hat-Trick]

This land-of-the-man-bun boondoggle was fraught with ethics problems and inflated revenue projections from the start. You know, it’s OK to not follow the rules as long as you have the public’s greater good in mind. Applying the left’s gun-control logic to this issue, I’m surprised they didn’t also try and sell this as a way to reduce bicycle theft.

Only in Liberal Land is the subsidizing of bicycle transportation thought to be worthy of sticking the big hand of government into the small pockets of it’s citizens.