bike sharing - why not san diego?
new bike sharing programs are underway in several european cities - among them, paris, with over 10,000 bikes at 750 stations across the city; tel aviv, and amsterdam, of course. in the states, san francisco's program is currently grinding its gears, but dc's BikeShare start date is imminent, with portland not far behind.
what is bike sharing? there's a good resource at the bike sharing blog, but basically it involves renting bikes from various stations around a city for an hourly or daily fee. clear channel (ugh) is providing support in the dc and sf programs so they can extend their billboard advertising to bike rental stations.
in san diego i'm guessing the most sensible places for such a program would be near trolley stops downtown, and along the major bus lines in hillcrest and north park. but you'd have to actually have a program in san diego for that to happen, and googling "san diego" and "bike sharing" returns unrelated results only. guess it's time to send an email to the city...
given san diego's dry and temperate weather, is there a better place in america for a bike sharing program? i spent much of today out on my bike, and it's a breeze to get from kensington to hillcrest to downtown, etc. bike-friendly streets with moderately-paced car traffic, and plenty of worthwhile diversions. get people out of their cars, extend the reach of the trolley by increasing riders' options for getting to/from it, and get some exercise in the socal sun. granted, san diego is a pretty canyony place, but you also have plenty of flat areas (downtown, beaches), or moderate grades (downtown to hillcrest, for example).
of course, a program like this is going to cost money. and given the recent reaction of san diegans to potentially having to pay for their trash collection like everybody else in the country ("i demand to continue receiving services i don't pay for!"), it's an uphill struggle to raise revenue to support a bike sharing program, which are rarely profitable. of course, building freeways isn't profitable either - except to the oil and car companies. here's an idea - in addition to whoring ourselves out to someone like clear channel above, how about going around with hands out to some of the major employers in the region, asking if they would support a program that would benefit their employees mental and physical health, not to mention the region's air quality? every bike trip is potentially one less polluting/carbon dioxide-emitting car trip.
i can't see a downside to this program, but then i'd probably be called a socialist by the typical conservative san diegan. of course, the typical san diegan is overweight, overstressed and spends an hour in traffic every day. like they're thinking straight anyway. ;-)
Labels: "san diego" "bike sharing"
posted by Paul Jamason @ 5/11/2008 12:59:00 AM
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I think a bike sharing program like this would be more of a benefit to tourists rather than locals. If the city is going to spend money making San Diego more bike friendly, I think that money should focus on the people that live here. I disagree with you about the bike friendly streets, my experience has been just the opposite. The streets and infrastructure are not bike friendly (those things that the city has control over). Sometimes the car drivers are bike friendly, other times they aren't.
Despite the great weather and the ability to bike year round, we're not a very bike friendly city. I would love it if those in charge at the city started making planning decisions with bicyclists in mind, but that just doesn't seem to be the case.
One example off the top of my head of very poor planning in regards to bicycles is the bike path along the river in Mission Valley. Every few blocks one must dismount, walk down the street to a cross walk, cross the street, walk back to the bike path and continue again, only to repeat it a minute or so later.
The condition of most bike lanes in the city is a joke. Police don't look out for cyclists safety (search the UT for the story from last fall about a teenager riding in a bike lane hitting a landscaping truck illegally parked in the bike lane. The kid died and police didn't ticket the driver).
I think our city has a long way to go before a bike sharing program is a good thing.
thanks for your thoughts jeff. my bike friendly comment was largely in regard to the moderate speeds on the city streets i bike on. there's plenty of room for improvement in terms of bike lanes and planning. and when is that bike line ever going to get installed along i-15 to connect to mission valley? i know the city's broke but there's little if any bicycling efforts being made, it seems.
it's always nice to dream of a bike sharing program built on a foundation of better bicycling resources in san diego, and i was probably disregarding the reality of the situation as a result.
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