How can you say there hasn't been a problem with theft and vandalism of these bikes in the US? Portland's YellowBike project was a posterchild - ALL of the bikes were stolen! Same thing happened when they tried it in Tucson, and in Madison...the list goes on and on...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_shari…

I am part of this bike sharing system in Mexico City, and it's awesome. You see people on it constantly, the bikes are well maintained, and it cuts down on inner city driving tremendously.

@reymont yellow bikes are completely different from a bike sharing program. Yellow bikes would be the equivalent of zipcar just leaving the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition and anyone can use it at any time for free with no accountability. Please keep your red herrings at home.

The sun shines more than a month a year in Mexico City.

If this was actually sustainable than why has no one else done it on their dime?

Great idea - but stop spending our money to punish the disabled.

This whole idea is ridiculous. They're throwing money down a hole.

The Internet: Where you don't need to know anything about a topic except that you hate it!

FREEDOM.

What I wish more than anything is that Portland could just shut the f**k up about transportation projects for awhile.

You'd think that transportation was the only thing we have to worry about around here. Schools? What's that? Crime? Nah! No good jobs? Who gives a shit?

As long as we keep adding bioswales to our bike boulevards, City Hall can knock off early. Job well done!

@reymont - As econoline noted, it's pointless to compare this bike sharing program to the yellow bike program. Instead of unlocked bikes left to depend on the goodwill of citizens to return them, these systems require a payment to check out a bike, hold users accountable for damage, and securely lock the bikes.

I've used the systems in Mexico City and Montreal and was pretty convinced that it would be very difficult to steal or vandalize one of their bikes without having to pay up for it.

If this is such a great idea, why hasn't the public sector jumped all over it?
You know who isn't so happy with this is gonna be the folks trying to rent out bikes downtown now - along with the taxpayers.
Yet again.

For that amount of money, they could have purchased outright and donated 11,000 $400 bikes to low-income households.

Not that I necessarily would have supported that either over public safety improvements and other core infrastructure improvements, but it would do a lot more towards promoting cycling over driving.

this isn't about people getting bikes to keep. it's about having bikes available widely as a short-distance alternative. ride the bus downtown, use a bike at lunch or briefly after work, bus home. no need for the car. have the system there for tourists. an option for someone who needs to make a quick, short trip during work & getting the car out of parking would be a pain (and expense).

there's a reason these things are being installed in more cities & why cities are expanding their systems: they work. they make sense, lots of people use them, and they improve transportation for everyone.

$12 million to build 1 mile of sidewalk? I'd like to see the breakdown of that.

The 80% Paris theft figure was surprising. PBOT lying through their teeth, not so much.

Let's also have some Segway racks in front of the high-end hotels.

@Splainitself and @Tabarnhart -

I object to the $6,000 price tag on each of these bikes. That's a pretty disgusting misuse of public funds.

I don't think many people will want to provide a credit card and pay to ride a bike downtown when they can just jump on the bus for free.

I don't think the operating income will be anywhere near what it will take to run this business, so the city will have to keep shoveling money at this thing every year.

I don't think people who DO want to provide a credit card and pay to ride a bike downtown should receive a public subsidy for that, when they can just jump on a bus for free. So what if they'd have more fun riding a bike? Why should I have to pay taxes to help support their hobby? Get on the free bus that we already offer, or pay for the whole cost of the bike ride yourself.

I think that if this WAS a good idea, it would be taken up by private enterprise. It's not, it's a dead-end money hole with no possibility of a positive ROI, and so no private investor will touch it.

This is a terrible thing. It's politicians spending huge amounts of public money on a 'feel good' project that's doomed to fail financially, with no investigation into the enormous costs that they are quoting.

I offered my opinion earlier, and because I didn't bother to type a whole page breakdown on it, you both chose to assume that it was a kneejerk reaction that I hadn't thought much about. I think that assumption reveals a lot about the both of you.

It it was such a good idea they should have promised to resign if it fails.