Brickbat: Don't Litter

Vnikitenko / Dreamstime

Seattle's new pilot bicycle sharing program has resulted in bikes being left randomly on sidewalks and parks across the city as well as tossed off overpasses. Officials plan to expand the program.

Comments

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

It's like a tragedy of the commons, only without the tragedy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

See? Addled.

[AlgerHiss]

The sad, scary part of this story is: If someone asks you to explain the lesson learned from this bicycle fiasco, don't waste your time. They will never understand your explanation.

[loveconstitution1789]

I wonder where all these lefty douches will move to when Seattle becomes the next Detroit?

[Longtobefree]

Well, this is Seattle, where all the socialists are moving in order to show how well communal living works out in the real world.
However, I did not see anything in the link that explains how many tax dollars are spent on these "programs". It reads like there is actually some private enterprise involved. Which would explain the contempt for the bicycles. If only the whole program was fully funded and run by government, then it would all be just fine, and all the bikes would be lovingly cared for.

[Juice]

Why does bikeshare work so well in some places but not others? In some places people just can't seem to stop themselves from destroying the bikes as if they were chimps or something.

[Adam330]

In most places they have docking stations where you need to leave the bike when you're done, and if it doesn't get into a docking station within a couple days of you renting it, your credit card gets charged a stolen bike fee of $1000 or so. It looks like they've decided to not use this sensible system in Seattle.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, the poorly-written article doesn't address any issues of price, cost, responsibility, etc. so we're left to assume the worst like many comments here are doing.

[Radioactive]

well it is Seattle, so assuming the worst may be wildly optimistic...

[Sheriff Bart]

The City of Richmond VA will be starting a bike share program tomorrow. The first couple of years will be funded by about $3 million in grant (tax) money. The city, which can't keep it's classrooms from falling apart, is kicking in an additional $280k. Yeah, these are the same idiots who want to spend millions taking down statues...

They hope to break even or make a small profit, but I'm sure, knowing the incompetence of the city council, it is based on wildly optomistic ridership rates, and wildly optomistic maintenance costs. The city also must sell sponsorships for each station to make it work.

[Stormy Dragon]

1. Seattle recently ended its municipal bike sharing program. The bike sharing discussed in this article is being run by two competing private companies, Limebike and Spin. I'm not sure why a failed government service being replaced by competitive businesses qualifies as a brickbat.

2. The two services are "dockless" bike shares, so while the author wants us to be horrified that "bikes being left randomly on sidewalks and parks across the city", THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING WITH THEM WHEN THEY ARE DONE.

[Radioactive]

Seattle is soooo fucked up, even PE can't save them!!!!

[Obafemi Martins]

walking to the match last night (1:1 draw vs Portscum) I noticed bikes parked next to the bar by the baseball stadium, some parked across the street next to the Griffey statue, and one with a broken peddle leaning up against the wall.

walking back to my car (yes, people do drive here) I passed some more. while i'm still not sure how this thing works, I did see a couple riding bikes (sans helmets!) from the stadium past where I was parked in an industrial area about a mile south. I imagine they left their bikes in the alley next to the train tracks.

thanks to Stormy Dragon for telling me this is how this "system" is supposed to operate. of course, even if this "system" does work, there are still folks that will make some effort to bring it down because of the helmet laws.