Comments on: Yellow Bikes Hard to Track

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

There’s been one near Martha Jefferson Hospital that’s been there for about 2 days. (It’s at the bus stop on Locust Avenue.)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Story is here.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Nice to say Dave Matthooze is getting his money’s worth. Also unsurprising that everyone is nonchalant about this. “Hey, the bikes are stolen, so what?” So what, indeed. Classic.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Of course, this program has been a disaster. Where on earth has a similar plan ever succeeded?

Don’t get me wrong: I travel by bike (my own!) every day, and will do everything I can to help the community become more bicycle-friendly.

But putting free bikes onto the street to be pilfered, damaged, and lost doesn’t help — indeed, it is just a publicity stunt bound to backfire.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

my girlfriends spent an hour fixing the chain on one of those things,*and* made a new “available/in use” sign for it to.

not everbody’s as apathetic about it.

though it was naive to think that this program would work.

By: arkitect75

arkitect75 — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Where on earth has a similar plan ever succeeded?

It is a successful program in Portland here in the US and many cities throughout Europe.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Yellow Bike Action Centre in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
�

It all began in 1999 with a $15,000 grant from Eco Action 2000. Since then we've been flying by the seat of our pants. The first year 60 bikes were released. They were locked with a common key ($6 each) and a length of chain. Anyone could buy a key for 5 bucks and unlock any yellow bike they ran into. Common complaints were :

* never being able to find a bike
* someone else picking up the bike when they went into a store or a friends house
* bikes were in bad condition (no one reported brakes or minor problems, so they got worse and worse until they were virtually unridable)�
* bikes were not suited to rider (too tall, too short, not everyone likes the curved road bike handlebars)
* at the end of the year we had 3 bikes returned. most of the bikes were tossed off rooftops, into the lake, crushed in alleyways... no good.

YEAR 2: we implemented a sign out system - small library cards with the name and number of the bike "#21- Red Rover", the riders name and number, and a box to fill in when they sign the waiver and leave a $10 deposit. the 10 bucks covers the unique lock, chain, and paint. We use both spray paint (not as environmentally friendly) and rust-proof outdoor paint. different volunteers have different preferences. This year we've put out 40 bikes from April-October, and at least 30 of those are in perfect working order and being used daily.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

It is a successful program in Portland here in the US and many cities throughout Europe.

I suppose it depends how you describe “success”. If you mean generating publicity about bicycles in a given city — yes, but not all of the press is good (e.g., theft/vandalism is bad PR). If you mean that these programs get people to leave behind their car and use a bike instead — no, nowhere has this happened. If you mean that these programs encourage local governments to invest more in transportation infrastructure for bikes — no, nowhere has this happened (such programs put small numbers of “free” bikes onto the road in places where cycling is already both popular and supported with appropriate infrastructure).

Of course, this program has been a disaster. Where on earth has a similar plan ever succeeded?

I guess I should have been more specific about my “similar plan” phrase. Where on earth has a program like C’ville’s — of putting free bikes, with no deposit, no locks, no loaner’s passes — ever succeeded?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

"You can't steal something that's free."

Moron.

The trees on the mall are free to anyone who wants to enjoy their shade. If I dig one up and transplant it to my house, I've just stolen it. Taking public property from the public is theft just as much as taking private property from its owner.

This program is highly useful in one way: to show what naive idiots the planners and leaders of the People's Republic of Charlottesille are.

- Bruce

By: BurntHombre

BurntHombre — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

“It is a successful program in Portland here in the US and many cities throughout Europe.”

Really? According to this article from the Observer, Portland’s program hasn’t been successful in any normal sense of the word. One thing both Charlottesville and Portland’s bike programs have in common is that their supporters both offer the same weak response to evidence that bikes are getting stolen: “How can you steak a free bike?”

April Schweitzer
Observer Staff Writer

Does the idea of a fleet of free bikes, available for anyone who wants to
ride them, sound too good to be true? In some cities, it has been.
Communities diverse as Portland, Oregon and Sagahadoc County, Maine have
found that bikes don’t last too long once they’re put out on the streets.
They quickly disappear, though Daniel Bohn, director of the Community
Cycling Center in Portland, said he has seen quite a few of the city’s
former yellow bikes pass by covered with house paint or shoe polish by their
new owners.

Over the years, we’ve released close to 1000 bikes that were all donated,”
Bohn said. “For the most part they are not seen three or four months after
they’re released. The last time we released any here was the end of last
summer and I saw one just before Christmas.

It was our intention,” he said, “that people would leave one, for example,
in front of the library, and then when they came out there would be another.
To do that in a city this size, you would have to have a whole lot of them
and spend a whole lot of money keeping it going.”

But Bohn remains optimistic about the program. “How can you steal a free
bike?” he asked. “If someone keeps a bike let them. That’s the whole
point–to get them riding bikes”

“Sure there have been cases when kids get hurt jumping the bikes, or some
bikes have been thrown in the river,” he said, “but it doesn’t happen any
more than any other kinds of vandalism.”

Bohn suggested that the program in Charlottesville would be a success “if
they combine it with after-school programs, incentives for business
employees to ride bikes, and make it a nonprofit so that people get a tax
break for donating. The reason why it works for us is because we’ve got all
of those programs splitting overhead.”

Jan Ward, director of alternative transportation in Boulder, CO said her
community’s free bike program has suffered losses from vandalism and theft,
but she still considers it to be a success story.

“We’re very proud of this program,” she said. “We have the highest rate of
return of any similar program in the country. We get 75 to 85 percent of our bikes back each winter.”

Ward, who describes Boulder as a “very bike friendly city, ” said the key to
the program’s success is the involvement of high school students.

“Every question that came up when we went to the students. They were our
guide. They want to have a cleaner and better world, and they believe that
one person can make a difference,” she said.

High School Students are hired to be bike mechanics, and that the
responsibility makes them “the watchdogs of the program,” Ward said. One of
her favorite examples is the story of a student in the program who saw some
other high schoolers kicking and jumping on a bike. He asked them what they
are doing and explained that the bikes belonged to the community.

“They felt pretty stupid after that,” she said.

John Boyle, President of the Charlottesville Albemarle Bicycling
Association, said “there’s been a lot of focus on the theft of the bicycles, but
nobody ever talks about the joy of bicycling or the affect that bicycling
can have on the community.”

“When there’s enough bikes in the community.” he said,
“you’ll really see a shift in how people think about bicycling and that’s
what we hope to achieve.”