Since Mayor Mike and the city\u2019s DOT are failing to fully explain why NYC\u2019s bike share program is a month behind the scheduled roll-out, it\u2019s probably helpful to look to other cities stuck in the same kind of rut.<\/p>\n
Both Chicago and Chattanooga, TN cut deals with the same for-profit company responsible for the implementation of bike share in New York City.\u00a0 Both Chattanooga and Chicago have also been mired in delays shrouded in uncertainty.\u00a0 The outfit in the spotlight here is Alta Bicycle Share, an affiliated company of Alta Planning and Design based in Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n
With Alta hired as the program\u2019s administrator, Mayor Mike spent many months touting a July 2012 bike share launch at hundreds of stations across midtown and lower Manhattan plus spots in Brooklyn and Eastern Queens.\u00a0 There has been great excitement about the blueprint but it\u2019s clear now as we sit here in the middle of August that there are no bikes and no significant infrastructure set up to make them available.\u00a0 What happened?<\/p>\n
All Mayor Mike will say when pressed is there\u2019s a software glitch.\u00a0 He won\u2019t provide a timetable for a fix and he has laughed off public concerns about the delay.\u00a0 Alta\u2019s corporate website is even less transparent.\u00a0 It celebrates successful implementation of bike share in Boston and DC but offers no update about its failures here.\u00a0 Its public pronouncements pertaining to bike share in New York and Chattanooga are long outdated and devoid of any mention of implementation missteps.<\/p>\n
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel says his city\u2019s delayed bike-share program isn\u2019t software-related and he denies reports that Alta\u2019s successful bid there was rigged.\u00a0 Chattanooga finally has bikes but local media reports say users are experiencing problems processing rentals.<\/p>\n
Citicorp\u2019s sponsorship of bike share in New York has made the program\u2019s official title \u201cCiti Bike.\u201d\u00a0 That seems to have enabled Alta to hide behind a nickname while it works out its problems.\u00a0 On Alta\u2019s Citi Bike Twitter page, public concerns about the delayed launch have been deflected to the city\u2019s transportation department.\u00a0 When you pull up DOT\u2019s link on bike share, it ping-pong\u2019s responsibility back to Alta.<\/p>\n
The coy weirdness by both the public and private entities controlling NYC bike share isn\u2019t acceptable given government\u2019s involvement in it all.\u00a0 I understand the need to get it right before implementation but forthright explanations would go a long way in helping eager bike-riders know when they get start putting feet on pedals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since Mayor Mike and the city\u2019s DOT are failing to fully explain why NYC\u2019s bike share program is a month behind the scheduled roll-out, it\u2019s probably helpful to look to other cities stuck in the same kind of rut. Both … Continue reading