Chicago has made a request for proposals from companies offering a bike sharing program. The city is considering a 500 bike program and a 1500 bike program, quite a bit smaller than the systems in Paris and Lyon.
Mayor Daley is excited, and that matters. You've probably heard about his bulldozing of their island airport overnight. He has a way to influence things. As the Tribune puts it:
Daley returned from a trip to England in the 1990s smitten by what he considered the beauty of the wrought iron fences of London, and the result is visible everywhere today: faux wrought iron fencing from one end of Chicago to the other.
On the controversy scale, bike sharing is probably closer to decorative fencing than bulldozing an airport, so this should be easy to make happen.
It's relatively easy to implement compared to other transportation systems, and the cost is low. The benefits have been discussed on this site many times, so I'll let a Chicagoan continue:
Some people ride their bikes to commuter rail stations near their homes, "but because Metra does not allow bikes on trains during rush hours, having these bikes available at the [downtown] Metra stations would be just fantastic," [Ed Barsoti of Illinois League of Bicyclists] said. "That would kind of complete the door-to-door trip."
For anyone new to this issue, I should point out that Toronto's Community Bicycle Network managed to implement a successful bike sharing program at a very low cost with no advertising. Toronto's government let it die.
In the meantime, a video about the success of the Lyon program, Vel'ov, has shown up on Youtube.
Comments
Anonymous (not verified)
I'll take ad creep for that!
Thu, 09/13/2007 - 00:26I'll take ad creep for that!
Ben
We're already inundated with ads
Thu, 09/13/2007 - 08:39While it would be great to cut down on the amount of outdoor advertising, a bike share program would also be awesome.
I can't see the city doing this until they've resolved the financial situation, which doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.
darren
Car creep
Thu, 09/13/2007 - 15:16We're also inundated with cars. I would gladly look at a few ads as I walk down the street so that thousands more bicycles (and hopefully fewer cars) are around me.
Geoffrey, isn't it best that Councillor De Baeremaeker is honest about riding on the sidewalk? At least he's aware there's a problem. It's a shame that nothing has changed yet, of course.
-dj
geoffrey (not verified)
toronto's post election cycling policy:kill cycling by any means
Thu, 09/13/2007 - 08:39So we get civic elections with lots of promises. An anti-cycling environmentalist in ward 14 who since endeavours to break MGT for cyclists, a cycling committee chair who immediately disbands the committee and has yet to form any sort of group to meet and act on cycling matters, a token commuter cyclist councillor from Scarborough who openly admits to cycling on sidewalks "because the roads are too scary", police on bikes who appear to use sidewalks more than roads - at least in Parkdale, the death of the yellow bike program, the death of the city's first cyclist by a city transportation truck - ironically the same department responsible for installing cycling infrastructure - evidently due to unsafe passing which the Ontario Coroner handed down recommendations for clarifying in the HTA in http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/coroner_appendix.htm, a second cyclist death under the wheels of a truck driven by a city contractor ..
Hi City of Toronto. Am I next? Was the last little bump from behind your PC ALI RASHID #9497 conveniently decided to record as my falling off my bike just a warning? Would you like to try that again? How much bloodletting Toronto? Why are cyclists expected to tolerate unsafe conditions for the convenience of motorists to blow by with inches to spare? Why are CANBIKES recommendations for cyclists to take the lane not tolerated by motor commuters and POLICE? Why is the Ministry of Transportation aloof whenever the Coroner's recommendations are mentioned? Why is assault and murder tolerated without charges when the weapon is a motor vehicle?
Ben
re Geoffrey
Thu, 09/13/2007 - 16:21Because cyclists and pedestrians are a bunch of psychos obviously. If they are in the way, it is their own fault. Those horrible bastards.