Bike share in Portland: $6,267 per bike

 

Dang! Portland is ahead of us in setting up a bike share system, though it looks pretty pricey with an initial outlay of $6,267 per bike. This news comes from Portland's version of the Bicycle Coalition, Bike Portland.org, via Jack Bog's blog.

 

Some amusing comments to the item in his blog:

 

How much can you get for those bikes on Craigslist? Or for scrap metal?

 

It's not just the initial purchase price of the bikes. I'm sure there will be some kind of office or group of City employees paid to administer, publicize, tweet and repair the fleet. Remember that the last time a similar program was operating in Portland it failed miserably. 

 

Given the state of city streets I at least hope they bought mountain bikes...

This proves that there really is no idea too stupid for Portland.

The patronage jobs would make modern Chicago blush. Alta is the subject of critical reporting in NYC for long delays and a questionable bidding process. Question: if this was viable why didn't a private company go for it? Jack, any chance you could summarize the Alta scandals in Chicago & NYC, and then note that Alta's leadership has strong ties to City government and may have been awarded the bid improperly? Corruption in PDX wears birkenstocks while corruption in Chicago wears expensive Italian loafers...

 

Pave the dang streets, PBOT.

When this boondoggle inevitably comes to San Francisco, the city and the Bicycle Coalition will invoke the drop-in-the-bucket rule that applies to bike projects, like here and here. No price is too great when imposing bicycles on a reluctant population which, after years of anti-car propaganda from City Hall and the Bicycle Coalition, perversely clings to its motor vehicles.