Foto Friday: Bike Share Locations in San Diego
According to Deco Bike, San Diego's bike-share stations will be installed beginning in October and will be ready for use at the end of October. The bike share program has been plagued with repeated delays for months. So it's good to know that the program will be ready for use by October 30th, 2014.
Everyone from the former Mayor Sanders, first responsible for initiating the idea, to current elected representatives at City Hall, have proudly extolled the fact that the bike share's implementation will be of no cost to San Diego's taxpayers. That sentiment is reflected in the locations for the first rollout of our bike-share program - the stations will be located in some of the city's high tourist areas such as the beaches and downtown. And that is excellent because giving tourists an experience outside a car is much more valuable than simply duplicating an experience they can get in their own hometowns or in many other cities.
But bike-share should also go beyond a tourist amenity. Bike-share should also serve the residents of the city. Bikes can be both a supplement to the city's existing transit services and be a stand-alone service for basic and short distance transportation needs.
Last week at the Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference, Philadelphia's Mayor, Michael Nutter, proudly announced that his city's bike share program would be first in the country to address issues around equity as the bikes wouldn't require use of a credit card. This approach by Philadelphia could very well be the key to addressing both the inherent imbalance of power and resources that exist in most large cities due to historical and funding neglect.
In San Diego, many of the current low income neighborhoods are (in part) low income due to the historical displacement of residents and destruction of property made inevitable by the building of freeways through their neighborhoods. These neighborhoods that could most benefit from bike share to augment their trips are being left out of the first phase of bike share's rollout.
To date, our city officials seem to have been content to let Decobike take the lead on implementing bike share. But in order to ensure the program's success, modelling Philadelphia's leadership in aggressively pursuing grants would go a long way to ensure the program's success and meeting both residential and tourists' needs for mobility. Let's hope that equity needs are addressed when Deco begins their second phase for bike-share program's rollout.
Your Input Needed: Bike Share Station Locations
Launching early next year, San Diego's bike share program now has a website and DecoBike is seeking your input on where the potential bike share stations will be installed.
Since our Council President, Todd Gloria, has apparently been crowned the bicycling advocacy maestro at City Council, below is the press release from his office:
WANTED: Public Input on Bikesharing
City Announces Launch of DecoBike San Diego Website
SAN DIEGO, CA (August 16, 2013) – The City of San Diego, in a partnership with DecoBike, is proud to announce the launch of the DecoBike San Diego website at www.decobike.com/sandiego, which will, for the next 60 days, will be accepting input on potential bikesharing station locations.
On July 9, by a vote of 7-0, the City Council approved a corporate partnership agreement with DecoBike, LLC for the funding, implementation, management, and operation of a self-service bike sharing system for a 10 year term. A significant aspect of the Bikesharing Implementation Plan is the placement of a network of bike stations. Those locations will be decided based on certain logistical criteria, as well as on public input.
“Bikesharing will be a tremendous benefit for the City of San Diego, the San Diegans can help ensure its success by proving input on what they want to see in the system during the next 60 days,” said Council President Todd Gloria.
The City is working diligently to involve residents, businesses, and community groups who have an interest in bikesharing. In addition to the website, the City will be sending emails to community groups, conducting site visits, and participating in community meetings. The program is expected to launch in early 2014, and will generate great benefit to the community and will be implemented citywide.
- Number of bikes: 1,800 – 2,200
- Number of stations: 180 – 220
- Number of bike docks: 3,240 – 3,960
Bikesharing has been successfully implemented in several other major U.S. cities, including Denver and Washington D.C. The concept of bikesharing is to provide affordable access to bicycles for short-distance trips as an alternative to motorized public transportation or private vehicles, thereby reducing traffic congestion, noise, and air pollution. Bikesharing has also been cited as a way to solve the “last mile” problem and connect users to public transit networks.
For more information on DecoBike, please see www.decobike.com. If you have any questions about the DecoBike San Diego program, send an email to: sandiego@decobike.com.
Tomorrow: City Council to vote on Bike Share
Tomorrow morning's City Council agenda includes the bike share program as an item to be discussed and voted upon. Tomorrow, the full city council will vote to enter into an agreement with the bike share operator, Deco Bike.
ITEM DESCRIPTION:
This item is to authorize the City to enter into a Corporate Partnership Agreement with DecoBike, LLC to provide a privately funded Bikesharing Program. The Program will enhance alternative transportation throughout the City. This Agreement represents a capital investment valued at $7.2 million along with potential revenue of up to $2.6 million. The City will not use public taxpayer dollars to implement, manage and operate the Program. The Agreement is based upon a ten-year term with the option to renew for two additional five-year terms.
According to the city's Bicycle Initiatives Program manager, Ed Clancy, the item is scheduled to be discussed and voted upon at 10:30 am. Having many of you show up would demonstrate support for the program and would send a message to the council that this is a good thing and we invite you to provide comments to Council on how they can use the bike share program as a tool to make San Diego a bicycle friendly city.
While it would be ideal to have the bicycle infrastructure in place to facilitate travel by visitors and occasional riders alike, we hope that the bike share program will push the city staff to implement the facilities needed, to make our streets more welcoming than it currently is, faster.
Update (7/9): City Council unanimously approved the item. Bike share is scheduled to be live and ready for use between January-March 2014.
San Diego to Launch a Bike Sharing Program
As reported by Voice of San Diego, Mayor Sanders appears to have finally realized the potential that comes with promoting bicycles as a mode of transportation and recreation. In Sander's press release this morning he states that San Diego will be breaking new ground,
This program is innovative because it will be one of the first in the nation to operate without public funding.
Councilmember Todd Gloria was in attendance at yesterday's bike share demo and stated, "I had a lot of fun at today's bike sharing demonstration in Downtown. The bike I test drove is a part of Madison, WI's system. If Wisconsin can do bike sharing, San Diego certainly can too!"
In our continuous quest to raise the bar, we ask that Councilmember Gloria now ropes in the rest of his colleagues into sharing his enthusiasm for bikes including Councilmembers Zapf, Lightner and, Young. Councilmember Lightner especially needs to be brought in to the fold since she's been busy wasting time chasing away little kids from makeshift bike parks instead of working to create a safe harbor like Councilmember Faulconer has.
In reading VOSD's writeup and subsequent comments of the upcoming bike share program, readers were subject to the usual bike bashing by the bike hating residents of San Diego. My only complaint about the grumblings is that they weren't substantiated by any data. When I attended a presentation on bike share systems nearly two years ago, the biggest takeaway was how quickly these programs broke even. Absent public funding, I'd be curious to see how quickly San Diego's bike share system breaks even.
Another issue that comes to mind with the Mayor's announcement is whether the driver/rider/pedestrian antagonism is going to escalate given that most of the mid-city and beach communities lack protected bike infrastructure (aside from the "bike" paths along the San Diego river and along the Pacific Ocean). I wonder if the city is going to use the popularity of the bike share system to begin implementing some key north/south and east/west protected bike infrastructure such as cycle tracks. While it would be ideal to have a bike share system implemented after some major bike infrastructure had been implemented, I do believe that perfect is the enemy of good. So I applaud the Mayor for taking this step, imperfect as it may be, to propel San Diego forward.
Is San Diego Planning on Starting a Bike Share Program?
I received the following flier and from the looks of it, it seems like Mayor Sanders may have decided to finally embrace the bicycle. While his plans regarding the bike share is still a mystery, the upcoming demonstration sure sounds promising.
If San Diego launches its bike share soon, we could actually be ahead of New York City, San Francisco and even Los Angeles.
If you plan on attending feel free to RSVP at the Facebook event page.