Bike Share Program Proposed for Jacksonville

[Steve]

Thinking about the more and reading a separate thread - it seems like the location of a bike in a dockless model could be a problem unless you just litter the city with bikes. With a docked station you have a reasonable expectation the bike will be there. Suppose I ride a bike to a restaurant, and leave my bike outside and someone takes the bike. The next nearest bike is a half mile away - not ideal.

Now, I'm assuming there's some way for me to "keep the meter running" so to speak and hang on to the bike. But, if I take it to work then I'm holding onto the bike for 8 hours and not using it. Not sure that's ideal.

Like I said I've never used a dockless setup, so I don't know for sure. Docks have their own challenges too (can't be cheap, and what if the dock was full)?

Seems like a better option is to set up a dockless model, but require dropoff at particular places (street corner, etc) and the operator just tosses a fence up. This doesn't have the infrastructure of a dock, but would then corral the bikes (thereby eliminating the issue of bikes everywhere), and there isn't a set number of bikes that a dock could have (someone could just squeeze one more in there). Might take up more room than the dock but there isn't the infrastructure.

[thelakelander]

Wow, look at these costs for a bike station:

ftp://ftp.ashevillenc.gov/Transportation/Transportation%20Planning/MichaelBlau/Bikeshare%20research/Bikeshare%20Digital%20Reference%20Library/CaBi%20DC%20Station%20Costs.pdf

It would be much cheaper to hire a couple of college kids to drive around to make sure a decent number of bikes are located at dockless hubs. That resolves the reliability problem while also providing more end user friendly flexibility and keeps a company from dropping a minimum of $50k on the installation of each station and another $12k annually in their maintenance.

[thelakelander]

^Nevermind, I see that's a way for the bike share company to make money to survive. This study of Baton Rouge's bike share estimated their costs at $4,000 per station (page 38):

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56bba43086db4378db7e026d/t/5813b5b1d482e97e5eb54ca0/1477686710889/2016_10_19_5518_BatonRougeBikeshare+%28COMPLETE+REPORT%29.pdf

[thelakelander]

Interesting read. Data from cities that have both: https://medium.com/transit-app/docked-vs-dockless-bikes-five-months-in-a86ac801f4c7

[Steve]

^Nevermind, I see that's a way for the bike share company to make money to survive. This study of Baton Rouge's bike share estimated their costs at $4,000 per station (page 38):

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56bba43086db4378db7e026d/t/5813b5b1d482e97e5eb54ca0/1477686710889/2016_10_19_5518_BatonRougeBikeshare+%28COMPLETE+REPORT%29.pdf

That's not staggering, but how much would the dock be without the screen to rent from (make people use a mobile site/app)? At that point, it would literally just be a no frills dock.

[Kerry]

Typical auto-centric thinking taking place at JTA.  You think they of all people would have a different mindset.  We subsidize cars 8 ways from Sunday but a simple bikeshare systems whose total cost is equal to a rounding error on a street project has to pay for itself right out of the gate.

[KenFSU]

Interesting read. Data from cities that have both: https://medium.com/transit-app/docked-vs-dockless-bikes-five-months-in-a86ac801f4c7

Really great share, tons of interesting data in here.

Maybe docked is the way to go for a starter system, with dockless added down the road to supplement it.

[KenFSU]

But a simple bikeshare systems whose total cost is equal to a rounding error on a street project has to pay for itself right out of the gate.

The four companies who responded to the RFP seem to think that it will.

[Kerry]

I haven't seen their responses so I can't tell you if they expect to be self-sufficient or not.  However, I do know that every road contractor in Duval County isn't self-sufficient.  They all require taxpayer dollars to cover 100% of their costs.

[thelakelander]

You believe it's best that tax payers fund bike share in Jacksonville?

[Kerry]

Sure - why not?  In fact, if it was up to me all public transit would be free to Jax residents.  Only visitors would have to pay.

The public should fund public transportation and the private sector should fund private transportation.  We do it backwards with massive public subsidies to private transportation and assess user fees to public transportation.

[thelakelander]

The public should fund public transportation and the private sector should fund private transportation.

In this case, the bike share program would be a private business funded and operated by the private sector.

[Kerry]

The public should fund public transportation and the private sector should fund private transportation.

In this case, the bike share program would be a private business funded and operated by the private sector.

Only because JTA proposed it that way - which is what makes their RFP so rediculous.  If JTA was putting out an RFP for a bus system do you think it would have the same requirements they asked of the bike share?  Of course the answer is No.  Again, this is why the City should have taken the lead on this.

[thelakelander]

Are Florida's other major bike share systems being subsidized by a municipality or transit agency?  I was under the impression that systems in cities like St. Petersburg, Tampa, Orlando and Miami are all privately funded.

[Kerry]

The only one I know about is the one in Oklahoma City, and it is run by an entity of the City.

http://spokiesokc.com/about.html

The City of Oklahoma City launched its Spokies bike share program on Friday, May 18, 2012, at which time it was managed by Downtown Oklahoma City, Inc. The Spokies program began with an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block grant administered by the City of Oklahoma City's Office of Sustainability. This grant was designed to promote energy efficiency, including alternative methods of transportation. Spokies has been part of EMBARK since August 1, 2014.