Now, only because it is a slow news day, I will poke some holes in this awful article by Charles Hurt that I can only assume is an attempt to be funny. I thought the last Washington Times article was the worst possible opinion piece on Capital Bikeshare ever, but Hurt has somehow topped it.
First off, he calls Capital Bikeshare "broken-down socialism." Now I was taught that socialism involves government owning the "commanding heights" of the economy. I'm not sure that CaBi qualifies as the commanding heights. Nor is a system that is moving over 6000 people a day at almost no operating cost "broken-down." But, unless you're against free public schools and free sidewalks, we're all socialists now.
Then come some factual errors:
CaBi stations are not loud.
The frames are called step-through frames.
Priuses have not been catching fire, those were electric cars and only when crashed and left to sit for weeks.
Finally he gets into the "problems"
The most obvious one is that you can check out a bike and pedal yourself anywhere your heart desires — so long as it happens to have a docking station for your bike.
Neither true, because one is free to bring their own lock, nor relevant. You can't drive to Hawaii either, but that isn't a "problem" with cars. It's just a fact. But several thousands of people are finding trips for which CaBi is useful every day, so many in fact that....
If your destination just so happens to have a handy-dandy bike-docking station, you better get there early or hope that not everybody is going in the same direction at the same time.
Let me see if I can recap so far: His points are that there are only so many places you can use CaBi which makes it undesirable and that everyone is using it so much that you probably won't be able to use it anyway. No disconnect there.
Since he's a lover of the free market perhaps he would like to explain why membership keeps going up in the face of these "problems"?
Then he finishes up by pointing out that after 18 months there was a crime committed using a CaBi bike:
My personal pride in the program reached a new level last week after reading about a woman in my neighborhood who was talking on her cellular phone. A thug rode by on a bike, slapped her and swiped her phone.
Which is quite a burn since no one in a car has ever committed a crime.
Reactionary haters are clinging desperately to their culture war, cause they can see the writing on the wall.
Homos are getting married! Everyone's riding bikes! What's next????
You could probably find a million articles like this back when women demanded suffrage. When society begins a tectonic shift, the timid circle the wagons.
Posted by: oboe | May 30, 2012 at 09:45 AM
"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." - Yogi Berra
Posted by: Novacek | May 30, 2012 at 09:53 AM
He's made up his mind. "Red" bikes equals communist.
Don't bother him with facts.
Posted by: Crickey7 | May 30, 2012 at 10:09 AM
As a professional economist, it always amuses/alarms me when non-economists talk about the virtures of the "free market". Yes, we economists love the free market too but can assure you that there are many instances of market failure that are inherent in the free market and must be remedied by government/society. To Mr. Hurt, please pick up a standard introductary text on micro and macro economics and read it. You will learn a lot. Please start with the chapter on negative and positive externalities.
Posted by: Kathy | May 30, 2012 at 10:46 AM
Free street parking for residents of their home zones isn't a subsidy.
There. I said it without bursting into laughter.
Posted by: Crickey7 | May 30, 2012 at 10:58 AM
Mr. Hurt: for all your free market preaching, the Washington Times has lost money every single year of its operation, and only survives through the est $1 billion pumped in from the Unification Church. The Church's founder, Rev. Moon, owns a chaebol, essentially a state-sanctioned conglomerate. His success is due in no small part to an ability to influence the Korean government.
Now, these facts alone do not make your story BS. Hurt's story is BS by itself. But the circumstance of his writing is frosting.
Posted by: SJE | May 30, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Hurt sounds like a whiney conservative version of Anderson Cooper. Brat. Two things that he gets halfway right: Bike share needs to expand to accommodate demand, and rush hour redistribution is a real challenge. Good problems to have if you ask me.
Posted by: Davis | May 30, 2012 at 11:43 AM
Mr. Hurt's complaint about docking is that you to use a facility and find that its crowded by other users. Sounds like a car driver on any DC road, or trying to find parking. Somehow cars manage to survive.
Posted by: SJE | May 30, 2012 at 12:02 PM
There is a silver lining to his article. The only people likely to be convinced by his arguments are the cognitively dysfunctional that party with steeped beverages. I don't want these people ever to have CaBi key fobs! Keep up the good work Mr. Hurt.
Posted by: Early Man | May 30, 2012 at 12:18 PM
Oh, how you gettin' down to the shore?
Funny you should ask, I've got a car now..
Ah wow, how'd ya get a car?
Oh, my folks drove it up here from the Bahamas.
Posted by: MB | May 30, 2012 at 01:25 PM
@MB: You're kidding!
Posted by: Ben | May 30, 2012 at 02:15 PM
Unbelievable. And the fact that a theft was by a CaBi rider should make the perp easier to catch - there are records!
Posted by: Va cyclist | May 30, 2012 at 03:29 PM
@MB:
I must be, the Bahamas are islands.
OK, the important thing here is, you ask me what kind of car it is.
Posted by: TH | June 01, 2012 at 06:27 AM