Bike Sharing In Jacksonville? Why Not?

[gjosephunf]

"Although there is a still somewhat of a love-hate relationship between cyclists and motorists, St. Petersburg is great place for bicycling,'' says Bayliss. "We have a lot of guys in who come to the area for three to four months of the year from places like Upstate New York so they can continue to ride with us in the winter.''

In addition to the bike clubs and bike lanes on city streets, St. Petersburg has also marked out numerous bike trails on city maps, and can claim a large portion of the Pinellas Trail, a 37-mile paved bike and pedestrian pathway that goes from Tarpon Springs to downtown St. Petersburg.

Now, with new bike sharing programs, St. Petersburg and Tampa will jump to the next level in embracing bikes as part of the culture.

http://83degreesmedia.com/features/bikes080613.aspx

So looks like Tampa has plans to eventually connect St. Pete with Bike Share.

[tufsu1]

Bike sharing is such a tourist thing...there aren't really tourists in downtown Jax.  I could see someone starting up a segway tour before I can see bike sharing happening in any successful form. 

have you looked at the US cities with systems...do all of these scream tourist mecca to you?

[thelakelander]

If it can work in Tampa's urban core, it can work anywhere.

[coredumped]

(1) Infriastructure: Every city with bike share programs spent years building a network of cycling infrastructure in the forms of bike lanes, cycle tracks, and segregated paths.

This is the absolute most important thing. As much as I love riding, I'm very scared in Jax to do so. Putting in some bike lanes takes little more than some paint, it's pretty cost effective. I'd live to have separate lanes, but at this point I'd settle for a white line.

[thelakelander]

^It's important but not exactly true.  There are a couple of cities that have not spent years building networks of cycling infrastructure, yet still have bike sharing systems.  I don't see the harm in tossing the idea out there and seeing if any operators are willing to take the bait.

One thing I noticed about the bike sharing program in Alexandria, VA is each station had a map of bike friendly streets, multi-use paths, bike lanes, etc.  This was important because once you get out of Old Town, density levels start to drop off pretty fast and you'll find yourself in Jax style environments.

If we did the same thing for the urban core of Jax, I bet we'd identify some decent corridors that make it easier to get around than most probably think.  When you start combining areas like downtown, Riverside, Springfield and San Marco together, with the Skyway serving as the river connection, something logical and effective may start to stand out.

In the meantime, we should be striving to improve our cycling infrastructure regardless of bike sharing.  For example, if that $9 million is snatched from downtown for roadway resurfacing, perhaps it should be spent on resurfacing projects that actually add bike lanes, cycle tracks, etc.

Below: an Alexandria, VA bike station map

Black = bike lanes/sharrows
Blue = bikes share lanes with cars
Red = off-street trails

[simms3]

Bike sharing is such a tourist thing...there aren't really tourists in downtown Jax.  I could see someone starting up a segway tour before I can see bike sharing happening in any successful form. 

have you looked at the US cities with systems...do all of these scream tourist mecca to you?

Austin, Boston, Chattanooga, Chicago, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami Beach, New York, San Antonio, Washington DC, and now San Francisco.  Some have separate tourist biking programs, but some have bike sharing that serves as their touristy bike program.

Of some of the other systems in the US: Madison, Boulder, and Atlanta - Georgia Tech are college campus oriented systems.  I have ridden some of the small town systems such as in Omaha and they were primitive at best, and we were tourists.

To me bikesharing could work well like ZipCar - more than 30 minutes must be allowed.  In car oriented areas you're shopping for groceries and goods by car and parking at your building.  In walking cities you probably would find it easier to walk 1-2, maybe 3 blocks to get groceries and goods.  Easier than bike riding.  So that leaves bike share riding either for tourists or for commuting, but you can't do the latter in 30 minute time frames unless there is a bike share rack near both your home and your work and you can rely on a bike being there both ways.  Plus as someone who also bikes a lot, it's always nicer having your own bike that you are comfortable with and used to.

I'm a proponent, don't get me wrong, but the model has to be tweaked and customized to best serve each individual area (whether that's an urban city, a car oriented city, a touristy city, a college campus, etc), and the infrastructure needs to be in place - that's imperative.  Cycle tracks, sharrows, dedicated lanes and turn signals, signage, routes, marketing, awareness campaigns, destinations, etc.  None expensive on their own, but enough together that warrant a serious focus and budget to make a success and to completely integrate cycling as a mode of transport for any purpose.

[tufsu1]

To me bikesharing could work well like ZipCar - more than 30 minutes must be allowed. 

agreed...no system cuts you off after 30 minutes...it just isn't free anymore

[Noone]

We at Bike Jax have been doing research on Bike share for over a year now.  (3) Tourism - Again, self explanatory.

Bike Jax guy or gal, would like to meet you on the Northbank and get your opinion on how to move bike racks forward at what should be immediate Public Access nodes that are presently not being utilized that would elevate everyone to the next level and transform dead zones into potential 24/7 vibrant organic clusters that will reclaim people back to the urban core. The first BOLD move would be at the Jim Love, Kevin Kuzel 26' Berkman floating dock compromise (Shipyards III) misrepresented by OGC to the Jacksonville Waterways Commission during the 2013 FIND grant application process.

Does anyone know the cost for a COJ bike rack?

[tufsu1]

^ don't know how much the bike rack poles downtown cost, but the new ones in Riverside were around $300 each

[Noone]

The riverside pole is that the one with the bike on top and two spots? How about the one on a school yard that could accommodate 12 spots or less. The cost is the same regardless of the area of Town I would hope.

[JayBird]

http://planetsave.com/2013/08/20/copenhagens-new-bike-sharing-program-gonna-be-sweet/

I always say if you're going to do something, do it right or let someone who can do it right get it done. Check out Copenhagens new plan for combing train transit with a bike share system that includes GPS.

[AntigoneStarr]

Honestly, I would love to see a bike share system in Jacksonville, but we have some serious work to do before we can get to a point in which bike share would be safe and useful.

As for who uses it - most of the people I saw using bike share systems in the US and London and Paris and Avignon recently weren't actually tourists. Just people who wanted to use a bicycle to get from point A to point B as opposed to mass transit, a car, or a cab. Some used them quite frequently, for short distances mostly. I think cycle share in Jacksonville would definitely have to be in dedicated areas (Riverside, San Marco, the Beaches, Town Center *shudder*, and others)

A major issue here though is safety as Florida is a far cry from being safe for cyclists or pedestrians, and especially with how driver's hate cyclists, cyclists who are rude/refuse to obey traffic laws (if they even know them), and driver's who are rude/refuse to obey traffic laws. We lack appropriate infrastructure, education, awareness, respect, decency, and so forth across the board on both sides (cyclists and motorists).

Not to mention, whenever we have implemented any sort of alternative transport in the city it essentially falls apart and never even comes close to it's desired goal (SkyWay, bus system).

Though, it would be cool if we were a town that could do a bike share program. But, there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done before we start doing bike share in say, Arlington or Mandarin or Southside or Baymeadows or the Westside or the Northside or San Jose or the University between San Jose and Arlington area (whatever that's called).

[mtraininjax]

$300 for a bike rack? Holy crap! If we can build less expensive racks, we can put them all over town, I'd like to see them start in Avondale, Murray Hill, and more spots in Riverside. I love the bike share system in NYC, but I see that Citibank has put their name on the system, so why not sell ads to Everbank or Publix on them? Get a Public/Private partnership going, like Mayor "I'm With Alvin" ran on in his election, seriously, this needs some buy in at the corporate level, and we can start with 5 bikes per location, Hey RAP, get involved with this Carmen, come on, let's lead the way. We get more people riding bikes, we can alter the planning in the city, but planning will not do anything, as we have seen, until more people use bikes. I am hoping MM in Avondale will lead to more bike riding, and I think a rack of rental bikes there could be a great start. I know Leigh gives bike tours, this would be great for her business.

[Noone]

Is there a bike rack at Metropolitan Park marina? If not. Why not?
Who would be the contact person?

[joey hodge]

Why not?-Tuberculosis.