Slog - Comments on Bike Sharing (Maybe) Coming to SLU

Comment by elenchos

elenchos — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:10:50 -0800

Spokane had bike sharing.

Comment by Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:11:36 -0800

First SLUT, now bike sharing... I never realized that South Lake Union was the only area of Seattle in need of alternative transit options.

Comment by Westlake, son!

Westlake, son! — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:12:17 -0800

Well, if nothing else pedestrians would be able to travel faster than the current transit in the area.

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:21:32 -0800

Anyone who commutes from Ballard to Capitol Hill (maybe ten people total) already has a bike or (more likely) wouldn't ever ride it.

Comment by max solomon

max solomon — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:24:28 -0800

the paris model would work - cheap for a half-hour to hour, but prohibitively expensive to just keep the bike. they've got your debit card #. but it has to be done on a city-wide scale. paris has 1 hill, montmarte.

our incessant, steep hills, requiring more expensive multi-geared bikes & the attendant maintenance, not to mention health & vigor, make this a retarded idea.

Comment by Eric L

Eric L — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:06:07 -0800

The logical place to start for a bike sharing program in Seattle is connecting neighborhoods along the Burke-Gilman trail. If it doesn't work there, it won't work anywhere else. If it does work it would seriously extend the reach of transit when Link is extended to Husky Stadium.

Comment by ouch

ouch — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:11:57 -0800

Hope they have giant balloon tires. What will the liability be when they crash on SLUT's tracks.

Comment by Buy your own

Buy your own — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:31:09 -0800

I'll ride my own, thanks. Most folks who use bikes as a primary mode of trans will not use this program. If this is paid with tax dollars, it's a waste. BTW, I lived in DC. Bikes are mostly used by tourists there. And DC's tourism is much larger than Seattle's.

Comment by Judah

Judah — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:36:52 -0800

Seattle has a class antagonism thing that I think will make bike sharing harder here. Basically we have a large contingent of people who just wander around tagging buildings and breaking things that are left out after dark, who would like nothing better than to trash a bike share program because it's "elitist" or some shit like that.

When I was in Paris two years ago -- where they have a similar contingent of chronically disaffected assholes -- I noticed their bike share was actually somewhat high tech. Their bikes had GPS locators built into them and electronic wheel locks, so that only registered users could use them. I can see something like that being a better option for Seattle.

Comment by mcfnord

mcfnord — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:11:49 -0800

insist on radically renovated streets parallel to Westlake, i.e. TAKE OUT THE ABANDONED 50-YEAR-OLD TRACKS YOU ASSHOLE CITY FUCKS.

Comment by Pince Nez

Pince Nez — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:34:38 -0800

let's not call it SLU. that sounds like a university.

Comment by I'm a Nuclear Bomb

I'm a Nuclear Bomb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:40:44 -0800

If the SLUT tracks aren't bad enough in that neighborhood the 50-year-old tracks and unkempt roads full of potholes are.

What's worse is the Guitar Center employees, who are this city's true menace.

AMIRITE?

Comment by lePC

lePC — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:06:19 -0800

@5
1. C'est "Montmartre."

2. Many routes don't have hills eg SLU to Ballard, SLU to ALki, SLU to U District thru Eastlake.

3. that again -- "we have HILLS here so we can't have bikeshare, we can't drive in snow, we can't build transit, whatever works somewhere else can't work here because we're so unique, we have HILLS here"

right no other city has HILLS. Got it.

Comment by COMTE

COMTE — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:27:26 -0800

Didn't we have a bike-share program down in P-Square about six or seven years ago? Didn't it die because people kept "forgetting" to return the bikes?

The Paris model, albeit more expensive, sounds more practical - maybe Hizzoner can squeeze Mr. Allen for a few sheckels to get it up and running. After all, it's not like WE haven't given enough already to Mr. Allen's pet transit projects; time for him to return the favor, especially since most of the people using the service will be his own employees.

Comment by kinaidos

kinaidos — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:43:14 -0800

South Lake Union IS rather a large area, and if anyone ever went there bikesharing could work I think. Think of it this way. The plan is more or less for a captive community of employees who will either stay in their offices or drive somehwere for lunch. Now if you can add in something to make the area effectively smaller, now you open up the possibility of people making lunchtime errands, taking mid-morning brakes to shop for spring-loaded-camming devices at Feathered Friends, buying yet more carabiners. It could work. but it would have to be a long term commitment to treating it as a bit of infrastructure investement. At least you won't have peopless bikes riding around the area like you now have riderless SLUTs.

Comment by Blunderplank

Blunderplank — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:10:53 -0800

Actually Erica, bike sharing in SLU would be useful to a car commuter or a bus commuter. It would greatly expand my lunch options if I could just take out a bike real fast instead of getting in a car and dealing with parking, etc. for a trip too long for walking.

Comment by Will in 98103

Will in 98103 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:17:25 -0800

I'm a bike commuter whose office just moved to SLU. (The rest of you will be here soon. Resistance is futile.) I think the bike sharing is a fine idea, and I especially like the GPS/wheel-locking Paris system.

But I doubt such a scheme will increase lunch bike commutes (@15, @16). Winters here are too rainy. So are autumns and springs. And despite all the jokes, and despite my own run-in with the bicycle-unfriendly tracks, the SLUT turns out to be the best way for us drones to reach our fave lunch destinations. Howzzat? My friends, I give you the GPS-powered SLUT schedule from my office to downtown, accurate to the minute. I use this bugger all the time now that I'm stuck at SLU. It rocks my world.

Comment by Kdonkey

Kdonkey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:17:12 -0800

Gas prices are at record highs and not likely to come down, global warming is a fact (just ask the polar bears), and there are many durable bike models that would be sustainable from a service and upkeep standpoint in a bike share program. If you oppose this pilot you are flaunting your ignorance.

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:38:22 -0800

LOL. I just moved work locations from Gas Works Park to the U Dist - and signed up for an annual bike lockup at the UW Tower parking garage.

Back when I biked from Fremont to just below Capitol Hill (PEMCO), there was a lot less traffic and it was a fairly smooth ride.

Nowadays, you'd have to be close to nuts to consider that.