From this article (tip: Richard Layman)
Portland transportation officials are eying about 100 high-tech bike-sharing systems worldwide to see if an investment in public bicycles could be successful in what's already considered a world-class bike city.
They hope that two demonstration projects scheduled here for August will give them a firsthand look at a few systems and help gauge public appetite.
Washington, D.C., is the only U.S. city that has installed a system. Minneapolis, Denver, San Francisco, Chicago and Albuquerque are considering or planning systems.
The nation's capital has a 100-bike project -- small in comparison to one in Paris with 21,000 bikes and 170,000 annual subscribers -- but it's popular and working well. An expansion will begin late this year to add 900 bikes.
Washington, D.C., and Paris are opposite in terms of size, but their methods are the same and cost nothing for local taxpayers. Both systems were installed by private advertising companies -- Clear Channel Outdoors in Washington and JCDecaux in Paris. Not only do they pay for themselves, both systems give money to the city in exchange for advertising rights on city-owned rights of way and transit stops.
In Washington, D.C., $40 buys an annual membership and a Smartcard. Subscribers must sign up online and wait for their card in the mail. The approach cuts down on theft, but prohibits on-the-spot rentals and isn't geared toward tourists, which the city hopes to change during the expansion.
"People are using it for all kinds of trips, to go to restaurants, meetings or the dentist," said Jim Sebastian, who manages the program for the district's transportation department.
There are environmental benefits as well. "We're freeing up the need for parking spaces for people's cars," Sebastian said.
He fields calls from counterparts across the country who are looking at installing similar systems.
"Almost every city has some level of interest," he said. "As long as you already have some basic bike infrastructure and culture this will work and it will help reinforce the interest in biking."
Of course, it's not true that it "cost[s] nothing for local taxpayers." We could have demanded more money from Clear Channel instead of bike sharing, but that ain't how the system works.
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