2008 Sims (Now) Solid for Obama
posted by on August 25 at 12:10 PM
Just ran into King County Executive Ron Sims on the way to the Pepsi Center. You may recall his fervent support, as a superdelegate, for Hillary Clinton—until she dropped out of the race. But if you ask him about all that here in Denver, it’s in the past. “That was a long time ago,” he told me.
A side note: I’d spotted Sims while riding down the street on one of the free bicycles that are being handed out here this week. Here’s mine:
There’s no reason Seattle can’t do this—offer free bikes in the downtown core to conventioneers and anyone else who wants them, set up a few hubs for picking them up and dropping them off, and track the whole thing using bar-code scanners and plastic ID cards. The Denver program is even able to track the total mileage we’re all riding on these bikes this week, which I think is pretty cool.
So I used the opportunity to lobby Sims on the matter and was told that this is, in fact, coming to Seattle. He told me bids are being collected, they’re watching the Denver program closely, and at some point in the hopefully near future—after much Seattle process, no doubt—we’ll have this in our city too.
We won't do it because homeless people will start bungee-cording their belongings to the bikes.
There's no reason we shouldn't do this... except, of course, that the government shouldn't be in the loan-me-a-bike business. Build bike lanes, yes. Then stand back and let high gas prices and more people living in the urban core do the rest.
Bike lanes on SIDEWALKS.
Ahh, the Seattle Process! And just to think we will have this program in place just in time for the peace treaty between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire at Camp Kittomear (sp).
I can't wait!!!
Bike Loans are the new high-tech portable toilets.
We tried it about a decade ago in Olympia. It was called the Pink Bike Project, if I remember correctly. It was great for the first two or three months but then homeless dudes started hoarding all the bikes and the whole thing fell apart. It sucked in the end, but was good while it lasted.
I'm just worried if we go forward with this that Michelle Malkin might have something to say about it is all. Which is why I'm voting no.
Do they still do the white bicycles in Amsterdam (they were doing it in 1967)?
Fuck, if it is handled like Metro that is going to be one screwed up program.
Never never never! It can't work! The hills, man! The water! The infrastructure! The exoskeleton! I refuse! J'accuse! When Hell freezes over! When pigs fly! A practical solution to a transportation problem involving bicycles?!?! How dare you!?
What happens when they get stolen or stripped for parts while in the possession of a renter, like when said renter stops somewhere en route and chains the bike to a rack? Most people tend to lock their bikes poorly... like the bike in that picture is, in fact (you always want to use a strong U-lock or heavy chain lock, and chain it through the tires). A cable lock is easy to break, and the tires are fair game when a bike is chained by the frame the way the bike in that pic is.
Is that renter held at fault? I can easily see this being a recurring issue in Seattle.
Pigs will fly:
http://www.earlapel.net/photos/cincinnati/flying_pigs.jpg
What happens when people start stealing copper from utility lines, Gomez?
Yeah, that's already happening.
You don't see us investing in space-age tubes instead.
@13: Is that last line a swipe at the monorail?
But we'll have to wait until the mayor ("That's Greg, with a 'G,' as in 'Green'") can claim credit for the idea.
That's a Trek Lime Lite right there. Three speed self shifting for the casual cruiser. I'd love to see them but a rear rack with a copious basket on that sucker, for extra usefulness.
No, it's gas escaping from Will's head. Looks like letters and words sometimes.
Uh, have you seen some of the people downtown? Those bikes would disappear faster than a [insert southern euphemism here.]
All the bikes will end up at the bottom of hills
I'm so hot for that chain guard.
Won't a lack of helmets be an issue? Aren't we supposed to be wearing helmets to ride bikes in Seattle?
I'm an optimist, generally, but -- echoing some other comments -- alls I see in several Seattle neighborhoods is empty bike racks surrounded by piles of tweaker scat.
Gomez @11 is right! It's the lack of locks that will keep this from happening!
PopTart @21 has hit the nail on the head! It's the helmets!
The hills @21! The thieves @18! The bureaucracy @9! All of it means that bicycles will never never never work in Seattle. Not free bikes, not cheap bikes, not expensive ones, NONE! The ONLY thing we can do is keep driving our cars.
Those of you who don't see this are fools. Fools, I say.
And now for my next amazing trick, I will repeal the bag tax.
Ta da!
(seriously, you guys need to get out more)
@6 yeah, but waking up daily with 8 different pink bikes on yr lawn sure made it easy to get back into town back then
@23 Excuse me for asking a FUCKING QUESTION on Slog about something to do with bikes. I thought that bicycle helmets were required in the city of Seattle. Am I wrong? Then fine, tell me so. But don't interpret my question as some sort of condemnation of why this won't work in Seattle because, as strange as it might actually be, I was ASKING A QUESTION not stating a view.
Ignore him, PopTart, he's a filthy fucking tagger.
HAS this ever been successful anywhere? It failed in Spokane and Olympia, among other places, I know that. Does anybody know the answer?
Madison WI has been doing it for a long time - the catch is to have ugly bikes. In Madison they're cheap road bikes painted red.
They're also trying this in St. Paul for the Republican convention, but I think a credit card swipe is required to check out a bike. That should help keep tabs on them.
@29
In Madison, you pay a deposit and they give you a bike and a lock that is yours for 6 months. You have to take care of that one bike. That is nothing like the bike sharing programs where you ride from A to B and then leave the bike and forget about it, and someone else rides it away. Then when you go back from B to A you find a completely different bike.
The key to failure in these programs has been that once you go where you were going, you didn't care what happened next to the bike. You didn't care if someone stole it. Yet if you do have to care what happens to that particular bike, then what is the point? Riders might as well go buy their own cheap bike for $20 and dispense with the whole scheme.
How will people make money off these though?
Can't we rent them?
Though I know it's hard for you to do so, Will, don't be a dumbass: power is easily renewable and replaced. A bicycle... not so.
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