I moved back to Philadelphia from Western Pennsylvania about a year ago and one of the first things that I noticed was the large number of people who ride bikes around town. Now, a coalition of groups is pushing to establish a bike sharing program similar to the wildly successful PhillyCarShare. City Council held a hearing on the subject yesterday and I decided to dig into exactly how the city can pay for something like this.
Here is how bike-sharing works: The city or a non-profit installs bike racks in strategic locations around town. City residents (and anyone else) can borrow the bikes and return them to the racks. Advocates say that bike-sharing programs can take cars off the streets and reduce the burden on mass transit agencies.
The cost of each bicycle can run as high as $4,500. That's mostly do to the need of special technology designed to decrease the amount of bikes that are lost or stolen. Given the budget constraints already facing Philadelphia, it seems unlikely that the government will provide the funding necessary to get such a program off the ground. Luckily, there are alternative ways to raise revenues for bike sharing.
Several cities in Europe and the U.S. have experimented with selling advertising space on bikes and other locations like storage racks. The fees from advertising are used to pay the purchase of new bikes, maintenance, and to build the infrastructure required to run the program. In Washington DC, the city has teamed up with mega-advertiser Clear Channel Communications and made bike sharing available to the public for an annual membership fee of $40.
Personally, I am a big fan of selling advertising space to pay for the program. This seems like the best option to get the cash needed to buy the bikes and install the necessary equipment across the city. Using advertising revenues seems like a smart idea because, to some extent, it innoculates the program from having to worry about finding funding every year. Right now, it seems like City Council and some foundations are interested in figuring out a way to fund bike sharing. That might not be true in a year or so.
On the other hand, many think that our culture is already saturated with advertising messages, and there are few too places where we can escape the relentless and corrupting beat of "buy me." Any good alternative ideas out there? Share, please.
Comments (1)
Actually, Portland Oregon has a much simpler solution. Thet take old bikes, rehab them for 10 or 20 bucks, and paint them bright orange.
If they are lost or stolen, the city is out $20. They accept donations of cash and old bikes to keep the system going.
Even if bikes are stolen, its cheaper just to take old bikes and recycle (ha ha) them.
Posted by Jill | May 1, 2008 12:15 PM