Capital Bikeshare: break even in three years?

One nice thing about having bike sharing in the District is that it is both a political center and a media center for the country. As a result, one early user of the system is CNN producer Xuan Thai, who filed this complimentary story about the system.

In the text, CNN says "it's like zipcar, but with bikes." That's not bad, but unlike zipcar, you don't have to bring the bike back to the place you got it from, which is key. So it's actually better than zipcar in some ways.

And not to bury the lead, but Gabe Klein drops this line (in the text only)

"It's like a startup ... we've estimated we can hit break-even in about three years. There aren't really any break-even transit systems," says Klein,

Additionally, the bikes are designed to carry advertising, which eventually will help defray the costs. Klein also points to other benefits that can't be measured in dollars and cents.

"It also fits better into our goals for the city, in that we want a sustainable city, a livable city, with a healthy population. This accomplishes all of those things, and also decreases congestion," says Klein.

As for other criticism

Capital Bike Share is often panned for running out of bicycles at high-use stations or running out of places to dock the bikes.

Also, users must plan ahead to bring a bike helmet -- or run the safety risk of riding without one.

I've had less problems with no bikes/no open docks lately, but I don't use the problem stations that often. This is a solvable problem. As for helmets, meh...

Comments

[Another David]

Also, users must plan ahead to bring a bike helmet -- or run the safety risk of riding without one.

Just like if they were riding their own bikes?

[oboe]

As for helmets, meh...

You are history's greatest monster.

:P

[washcycle]

You are history's greatest monster.

I thought that was Albert Haynesworth?

[charlie]

The best thing that IF bikeshare succeeds, we can kill the helmet thing once and for all.

[darren]

Operating breakeven would be great, esp in this political climate.

But it shouldn't be the goal. Bikeshare is funded with money for congestion and air quality mitigation. You mitigate those things, and thereby establish a body of evidence for future investment of those funds by others, by maximizing ridership. You maximize ridership by subsidizing operations (as most forms of transit are) to maximize (and expand) service and marketing the system.

Hey, the Redskins could spend the salary savings from history's greatest monster on 17 CaBi stations!

[washcycle]

Darren, I agree. I think CaBi could break even, but I'm not sure they should. The political value would be great, but they'd be losing money in reality.

Each trip by CaBi has value to the District. If it moves people from one mode to another there is value there. It makes people more efficient and that has value. Plus, that people use it means the value to them must be greater than the cost. That is a cumulative value. None of these things are captured in the price. If DDOT breaks even, that really means it has turned a profit, where the profit is all of these uncaptured benefits.

Let's say each ride on CaBi is worth $0.10 to the District. It would be reasonable for them to continue to subsidize it up to $0.09 a trip. They'd still be turning a profit.

So I've backed away from saying I think CaBi will break even, because it will only do so if DDOT decides that is important. If maximizing use is the goal, then they won't break even. And so maybe they shouldn't.

[Michael H.]

You dared mention the name that should not be spoken (in D.C.).

Not only could Haynesworth fund 17 stations, he could fund the entire system himself. Didn't the system cost something like $3 or $5 million total? That's less than a fourth of the $21 million roster bonus that Fat Albert received this past April, just for being a disgruntled, overweight malcontent.

So Albert, since you now have a lot of extra time on your hands, why not pay for a CaBi expansion? Build some goodwill for once. You can pay to double the size of the CaBi system overnight. How about it?

[JJJ]

Micheal, start up costs for a 100 station system are at around $6 dollars.