Trollin' ain't easy.

Didn't you say yesterday that it needs an additional $3 million? Or is it $6 million?

I am not in the corporate sponsorship business, but that seems like a lot of clams to sponsor something like this. That seems more like "name the city's new sports stadium for the next 20 years" type of money.

Geez, I got a fairly decent commuter bike brand new for 700 bucks. Does this program really need bikes that cost over a grand apiece? Also, cable locks? Really? Sounds like there's about to be several hundred expensive bikes stolen if and when this ever does get off the ground.

@Blabby: Good question. It's an additional $3 million or so to pay for the system and set it up. But the contract also asks that Alta corral the money to operate the system for the five-year length of the contract. According to Hoyt-McBeth, that's in the neighborhood of $6 million total in sponsorship money. It's still a rough number, though.

Thanks. So $6 million total, with about half needed to get the system going.

At that price, wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy everyone a cheap bike from Wal-Mart?

A better idea would be to create a grant program to give Portland residents that wish to start a bike rental business. At 4.7 million you could give out 188 $25,000 grants.

Anyone who doesn't think that city money has paid or will pay for this thing in part is delusional.

Once this thing is in place, does anyone seriously think the operations will scale down or terminate if user fees and "sponsorships' don't cover expenses? No, PBOT will find some "contract savings" or other sort of budget contrivance to keep the consultant and government insider's wheels greased.

Fundamental problem for Portland bikeshare:

3rd Generation Bikeshare (Bixi): $6,000 - $10,000/bike
4th Generation Bikeshare (SoBi, viaCycle): $1,500 - $2,000/bike
5th Generation Bikeshare (summer 2014): $350 - $750/bike

www.inventropolis.com

Now, I thought I've read before that there is some City money going into this project....
Regardless, I bet the folks in the bike rental market here just love this idea.
I wonder how many will be 'shared' in the winter months?