I’ve been trying to figure out just what the hell’s going on with Portland’s much-discussed bike share system. As we reported this week, no one on the front lines of finding $5.5 million in sponsorships for a 750-bike system is saying anything about that work, but it seems pretty clear we’re looking at another delay.
Since Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat refused to discuss this with me, and Alta Bicycle Share Director Mia Birk says she can’t share anything, I’ve been turning outward to try to get a sense of why we’re having trouble corralling cash.
In this week’s story, I included the comments of Susan Shaheen, a researcher at University of California, Berkeley, who’s studied bike share systems throughout the world. She floated the possibility that title sponsors—the companies that kick in big-time money to name bike share systems, pick the color scheme and slap their names all over the tank-like bikes (think Citibank to New York’s Citi Bike system)—aren’t as excited about bike share as they used to be.
“Maybe part of this issue is: When these first title sponsors sign on, it’s exciting and it’s new,” Shaheen told me. “For the fourth and fifth installment, it’s not as exciting. Maybe the first couple cracks at this was considered a better bang for your buck.”
I heard a similar suggestion from Parry Burnap, who got Denver’s B-Cycle program up and running in 2008—partly by finding willing sponsors, partly by tapping a bunch of money left over from the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
“For Denver, things lined up in a way,” Burnap said. “Bikes were pretty new. There was no feeling that, yeah, we’ve been there, done that.”
Fair enough. I figured maybe Portland’s having trouble because we sort of missed the boat on bike share. Even huge metropolises with systems up and running—Chicago, DC, San Francisco—are operating on public money. They’ve not been able to attract a big sponsor like Citibank or a Barclays (which sponsored London’s system).
Then I talked to Holly Houser, executive director of Puget Sound Bike Share, which is having its own troubles scrounging up corporate money.
She’d read our story, and Shaheen’s theory.
“I really strongly disagree,” Houser said. “I think it’s quite the opposite.”
She said, if anything, Citibank’s sponsorship had made big companies more excited about bike share. And she sent along a couple articles (here and here, both from back in July) suggesting Citi has seen big-time payoffs in perception for its $41 million investment.
“Citibank kind of took the first step and I think rally took center stage,” Houser said. “We have seen a lot more interest come up and, especially on the West Coast, a better understanding of bike share.”
Also: Slapping your logo on a bike share station is pretty much the only way to get advertising in the right-of-way up in Seattle, she said. It would be a huge potential boon.
Fine. So why is Seattle struggling?
“I think part of it is the kind of money” available in Seattle, Houser told me. Many of the big sponsors for bike share systems, both in the US and internationally, have been banks or health care companies—organizations that might have dubious reputations, and aren’t very successful with media campaigns geared toward millennials. Contrast that with Seattle’s big fish. Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks probably don’t need the help.
It’s easy to see the same being true here. Nike? Intel? They don’t have to shell out $5.5 million to win Portland’s allegiances with some bulky bikes. Maybe Kaiser Permanente—who Alta’s been courting—will ultimately give in to our advances. Maybe not.
It’s not super heartening that wealthy Seattle, which is hoping for 500 bikes at 50 docking stations, only needs to corral about $1.75 million to get things off the ground and still can’t find it. We need far more than that.
Of course, we could always pay for the thing ourselves and wait for the money to trickle in, something PBOT officials have mulled in internal documents [pdf]. Or, we could take what money we can get and roll out a smaller system, something Houser’s also contemplated.
Not that she thinks it will come to that.
“I’m really confident that we’re going to find the money that we need. I don’t doubt that it’s going to happen.”
Public monies would be wrong.
That is, unless this system were meant to serve all of Portlanders and not just those living close to downtown.
Pretty simple explanation, actually: The team that pushed this through overpromised in order to get the public dollars allocated.
That team was Sam Adams, Tom Miller, Alta and the BTA.
Having utilized bike share programs while visiting both Boulder and NYC, it blows my mind that Portland seems to have dropped the ball on this so many times. A well-planned bike share system that amply covers all neighborhoods of Portland would have been so much more welcomed than an eastside streetcar or Milwaukie MAX line.
As a card-carrying tax-and-spend liberal, even I think bike share is an insanely stupid idea for Portland.
If you want a bike, buy a bike. They are super cheap on craigslist. If you’re here temporarily, rent a bike. What problem is bike share addressing, again?
Citi Bike: $50 MM for about 5,500 bikes = ~ $9,000/bike.
Ottawa, Toronto, Chattanooga have many serious financial questions. Montreal’s auditor even questions whether Bixi is a sustainable business operation. Atlantic Cities has used the word bankruptcy.
Prospective sponsors who look under the hood recognize that the technology is evolving very fast away from what is proposed for Portland. Companies don’t want to be associated with passe technology.
http://inventropolis.com/the-world-bike/
CC, thank you. I have had the same question for some time now. Not against the idea but the need does not appear to really be there
Alta should spring for the title sponsorship. What’s more embarrassing than admitting you couldn’t get a system up and running in your own hometown?
@CommieColin: Did you think the same thing about Car2Go? BikeShare is an exponentially better option than rental given no need for a lock and ease of use. Yes, most residents should have their own bikes but what if they took the train to work (downtown) and want to go to a meeting, etc., close by?