Saturday, November 07, 2009

About Those Bike-Sharing Programs to Save the Planet   [Greg Pollowitz]

The Boston Globe editors write:

When officials in Paris arranged to have 20,000 pricey bicycles placed at bike-sharing stations around the city, they were conducting an experiment both on a transportation system and on human nature. In two years, more than 80 percent of the bikes have been damaged or stolen. Some of the culprits, predictably, are thieves who see the $1,000 bikes as easy targets, but many others are disaffected youths who see an opportunity for vandalism. The lesson, it seems, is that successful bike-sharing depends upon residents being happier than many Parisians actually are.

I thought the French led the world in that most important of metrics, Gross Domestic Happiness? Anyway, you'd think this would end any discussion about American cities trying such a program. Think again:

Still, that cautionary tale shouldn’t stop other cities from pushing forward with similar programs, as Boston hopes to do next summer. Nicole Freedman, the Menino administration’s director of bicycle programs, notes that the overall theft rate is higher in Paris than in Boston, and she takes heart in a 3 percent loss rate in Montreal. It’s entirely possible that, beneath a stereotypically dour exterior, Bostonians are more at peace with life than residents of supposedly carefree Paris. In any case, the likelihood that some bikes will go missing doesn’t alter the benefits of experimenting with a new form of transportation.

Do the editors of the Globe not have calculators? 20,000 bikes at $1,000 a pop is a $20 million investment. According to their editorial, Paris lost $16,000,000 of their investment. Can Boston really afford this type of experiment? I bet they're glad those 20,000 bikes weren't out on the street when the Yankees wrapped up the Series.

11/07 04:00 PMShare