http://www.dailycamera.com/letters/ci_18027431
The lead letter today was from Andrew Johnson, noted 17th President of the United States, not to mention a Boulder cyclist annoyed that the city would install its expensive new bike-share program rack in a spot that displaces the horseshoe bike rack he tends to use for his own bike. Selfish Andrew! He doesn't like the bike share program!
Me neither! Firstly, the city ignored all the good advice it got and decided to simply duplicate the Denver program, which already solidly indicates itself a failure. The numbers don't lie...the average mileage per bike for the first year of the Denver program was around 200 miles of total use. Prove me wrong, but there are plenty of personal commuter bikes in Boulder that see that much mileage in a week, and many more that would at least cover that figure in a month. A public bike open to unlimited numbers of users that only racks up 200 miles in a year is the emblem of an unsuccessful bike share program. And why would it be?
Expense for one, compounded by the fact that the bike share racks only take one kind of bicycle. In other words no manufacturer or distributor or retailer or owner of a perfectly good bike can donate their bike to the program. Instead, it looks slick...and the bikes cost; meaning the rides cost.
The city council was impervious to feedback prior to implementation.
A typical raw deal for Boulder.
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