"Zip" Bikes For Boston?
When I was in Paris I saw these Vélib' bicycles — basically "zip bikes" — everywhere. I remember having a couple conversations with my friend Jamie about whether "bike-sharing" could work in Boston. I was, and am pretty skeptical. First of all, Americans aren't very good at sharing, in case you hadn't noticed.
Still our fair city seems to be embarking on a bicycle-sharing program — at least Mayor Menino has announced he's seeking proposals for one. Certainly a bold step for a city that clearly lacks the biking infrastructure to make it work. Shouldn't some kind of cycling infrastructure come first, and then the bicycle-sharing? I don't want to be nitpicky, but this could be a case of putting the cart before the horse.
The problem with launching a program like this before we have the infrastructure to make it a truly viable mode of alternative transportation is that bike-sharing is less likely to succeed without first literally paving the way for it. And there have been a lot of missed opportunities lately. Many new projects that might have been perfect for bicycle-sharing, like the Rose Kennedy Greenway, aren't bike-friendly at all. Boston's neighborhoods aren't even close to being linked by bike paths. Even Mass. Ave., with some of the longest stretches of bike lanes from Arlington to Dorchester, is spotty at best.
I'm sure that many wannabe urban cyclists (the Mayor himself among them) will praise the Mayor's good intentions. But without some kind of integrated, sensible, long-term approach that proceeds with some logic, what you're bound to end up with five years from now are a couple of highly visible bicycle-sharing racks in tourist centers, not a viable system of alternative transportation. This being Boston, there'll also be some sort of prohibitively expensive rental fee, and all the bikes will be broken-down, chainless, with their wheels all bent out of shape.
But, heck, why not try it?
Well, there are actually several cities in Europe that have the same system: Vienna being the first one (Citybike, in 2003) and my hometown Barcelona (Bicing, in 2007)... and surely others that I'm not aware of.
Of course, not all of the locals in these cities use cars, as it is the case in most of the cities in the US. Mainly because the metro/bus/train infrastructure is really good.
Boston might not be the most touristic, infrastructure-ready and civic city (Paris and Barcelona don't highlight on that last one). But wouldn't it be nice having the option?
Reply to this
It's true that many cities in Europe that have bike-sharing programs haven't done much to pave the way for them, as far as infrastructure's concerned, but there are other issues -- from culture to congestion -- that make them a little more more viable even without the infrastructure. Pris is big enough, yet compact enough, so that even though the streets may be congested, bikes still make sense there.
I have mixed emotions about more cyclists on our city's streets, being one myself. Bike paths are already congested (not just with cyclists, but with joggers and walkers as well, who often seem to think it's a challenge to their personal autonomy simply to make way for each other), and on the streets it's not uncommon for cyclists, when they are not dodging pedestrians and cars, to have to dodge other cyclists, when one of them's going the wrong way down a one-way street, for example, which happens often enough in a city with a shitload of one-way streets.
Still, I think bike-sharing is a great idea. My fear is that, the way things like this work hereabouts, the "experiment" will be called a failure five years down the road, not because it couldn't work in Boston, but because we didn't really set it up to succeed by laying the groundwork first.
Speaking of which, I happen to know you yourself don't have a bike, my dear Totito, and have never ridden in Boston. When you get one, we'll go for a ride, and then you can tell me all about options.
Reply to this
We have them in Brussels too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/serhumano/3188081961/
Reply to this