Revenue positive is not so crazy

Adam Voiland has part of an interview with Paul DeMaio wherein he talks about the possibility of CaBi's revenue covering it's operating costs.

I bet there are programs that break even with their operating expenses and I can see CaBi doing this. With the right pricing, station placement, and sponsorship, I can even see bikesharing services becoming revenue positive.

BTW in October there were reportedly 36,762 trips taken and a total of 1,065,362 minutes ridden on Capital Bikeshare. They're so ubiquitous that I was watching a video today from the Science and Technology Fair on the Mall (about encouraging girls to get into science) and I saw one in the background.

Comments

[DaveS]

My ubiquity gong went off when I saw that some were ridden for the tweed ride.

Heck, part of the reason I'm not interested in that event is because I don't have a period-appropriate bike. I'm glad other people aren't cursed with that particular purism, even if there's little hope of me changing my own mind.

[SJE]

I've never thought of having a ubiquity gong. :)

[Dr Pangloss]

When's Medicare going to become revenue positive? As far as I can tell, highways have yet to turn a profit. How much did the US Coast Guard make us last year.

This whole "revenue positive" thing is so ridiculous. Great to hear it's possible CaBi might operate in the black, but it sure as Hell shouldn't be a requirement.

[SJE]

Pangloss: good point, but only if you can convince people that bike riding creates positive externalities. Less traffic, less pollution, more convenience, less parking problems. Thus far, people think the Coast Guard is necessary to keep us safe, and that highways are paid for by the gas tax.

[Richard Layman]

It will be very interesting to see what happens with membership in DC. It's not out of the question for the system to go to break even. But it could be tough. In Montreal, they got 30,000+ members the second year, but Montreal has 3x the population of DC. Granted they don't cover the entire city with bikestations, but neither is DC fully covered either.