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Tue
Sep 11
2012

Why Not Bike Sharing in Philadelphia?

Have you visited Montreal in the past couple of years? How ’bout Paris? Barcelona? If so, one aspect of the tourist experience that probably jumped out at you during your trip was the presence of a bike share program in these aforementioned cities.

Bixi bikes in Montreal

Bike share, if you’ve never heard of the concept, involves bicycles being available for use on a per ride basis, opening up cycling to people who don’t own their own bikes. Commonly, these programs include numerous docking stations located at various locations around downtown areas, allowing riders to pick up a bike at one station and drop it off at a station that’s within a couple of blocks of their destination.

Considering the concentrated downtown area in Philadelphia, the relatively flat nature of Center City, and the unfortunate propensity for nice bikes to get stolen off the street, it would seem like our green country towne would be a great candidate for a bike sharing program. And that’s just what Bike Share Philadelphia is hoping to achieve. In fact, there’s even a Feasibility Study that was done back in 2010 that pretty well establishes that a bike share program could indeed work in Philadelphia.

Suggested phase 1 and phase 2 map from the feasibility study

Currently, Bike Share Philadelphia is asking people where they would like to see bike share docking stations. As you might expect from such a crowd-sourced question, the answer is, everywhere!

Center City filled with bike docks

Filtering by popularity, you see a slightly more reasonable vision.

Maybe a more intuitive first step

So what are the next steps to get this off the ground? We’d guess that the Mayor or a member of City Council would have to make it a priority to get things moving and hire a company to start to roll out the program. So… what’s the holdup?

And for people who think this is a terrible idea and don’t want to give up parking spaces or sidewalk real estate to bike share docks, we can say from experience that bike share is way cool and you just don’t know what you’re missing. Catch the bike share fever, people!!!

20
COMMENTS
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments
  • Ben

    I was in Montreal last summer and loved using Bixi. It was not only inexpensive and easy to use, it also gave me a much more favorable impression of the city as a tourist.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve been dreaming of this kind of program for literally years!!! Off to add locations!!

  • TC

    This would be a great idea, but NYC hasn’t implemented theirs yet. Once NYC does it, then we’re allowed to.

  • thegreengrass

    Boston has one and it’s very Philadelphia-sized… No reason we couldn’t do it here.

  • phlstudent

    same. I loved it.

  • Steve

    I’m a cyclist and I can’t tell you the number of times I want to bike to a location and then walk with friends to a third location. Everyone knows walking with a bike across Center City sucks. I’d definitely be a member and use the system quite a bit.

    It will also be great for tourists getting around to places like the Art Museum.

    Let’s do this Philly!

  • http://twitter.com/PhillyTapFinder PhillyTapFinder.com

    It’s in DC now as well. I talked to a couple people last weekend about their experiences and they were all very positive.

  • betty

    I used Denver’s bike share recently on vacation and it was the highlight of the trip. We had much more fun than taking the city buses! I’ve brought up the fact that, once NYC debuts, we would be the only of the major northeast cities to NOT have a bike share program. DC, Boston AND NYC?! Come on! Let’s get with it. Biking in Philly has also been a better experience for me personally, so I can only imagine our bike share would rock more!

  • Cronmoax

    I used Bixi this past summer for the first time in Montreal. It was super easy and convenient. With a yearly membership it would be totally affordable! I’d love to see it here.

  • Cronmoax

    I used Bixi this past summer for the first time in Montreal. It was super easy and convenient. With a yearly membership it would be totally affordable! I’d love to see it here.

  • Wannabe

    Won’t this cut into SEPTA’s bottom line? The gov’t won’t let you take money out of their pockets.

  • http://hiddencityphila.org/2012/09/ordinance-calls-for-riverfront-buffer-between-development/ Ordinance Calls For Riverfront Buffer Between Development | Hidden City Philadelphia

    [...] Philly asks, why not bike sharing in Philadelphia? Already a delightful tourist experience in cities such as Boston, Denver and Montréal, Bike Share [...]

  • Bike Share Philly

    Bikesharephilly.org has consulted SEPTA concerning Bike Share for Philadelphia. They indicated that it would complement their service. It can serve the first or last segment or both of a SEPTA trip. A way to get to and from the subway, trams and regional rail. Bike share becomes an extention of SEPTA! http://www.bikesharephilly.org

  • Exburgher

    They are locked, and require a credit card to take out. They are not easy to steal.

  • Andy

    To be honest, this is a visitor’s issue, right? For the most part, at least. The vast vast majority of Philadelphia residents who would bike around would do so on their own bikes. I would be very unlikely to ever use a bike share program. That being said, I’m in full support of its implementation in Philadelphia, if for no other reason than to increase the salience of bicycling as a means of transportation around the central Philadelphia area.

    I fear, though, that the bicycling infrastructure in many parts of central philadelphia is not QUITE well-developed enough for family visitors to hop on bikes and make a day out of it. Some of the streets are pretty mean. For adult visitors, however, it could be a perfect alternative to driving around.

  • http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2012/09/bring-bike-share-to-philly/ Bring Bike Share to Philly – Keystone Politics

    [...] With Friends Tweet&nbsp&nbsp Posted on September 12, 2012 by Jon #Great post on this over at the Naked Philly blog:Bike share, if you’ve never heard of the concept, involves bicycles being available for use on a [...]

  • http://twitter.com/brianbrews Brian Marsh

    Actually depending on locations and program details, I could envision using the bike share on a regular basis.

  • Anonymous

    Exactly. And the new SEPTA fare payment tech could be compatible with the bike share kiosks.

  • Anonymous

    The problem is that no city has a bike share program that is not subsidized by the government. Given the city’s budget issues, Harrisburg’s “conservative” values, and City Council’s mixed opinion of cycling in general, bike share has a lot of obstacles to overcome.

    The big test will be in NYC, where the bike share will be 100% privately funded (massive sponsorship by CitiBank). Even if works there, that doesn’t mean the economics will work in Philly. And even if they do, we’ll still need City Council to legalize it, provide space, etc.

    It’s going to be a long road.

  • extra

    I am from Philadelphia but live in London now. The Barlcays Cycle Hire scheme works very well here. I often use it to travel to and from work and when the weather is bad, I take a bus or subway instead. The main convenience is the daily/weekly/yearly membership fee and it is free if you re-dock at any kiosk within 30 minutes. Hopefully this gets off the ground in Philadelphia but it will be dependent on whether they can get private funding (i.e. TD Bank or some sort).

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