March 6, 2017

Is the sun setting on bikesharing in Seattle?

Before the New Year, bikeshare enthusiasts in the Seattle area were buzzing about what could be, with talk of a new improved bikeshare system. This new system sought to address many of Pronto’s shortcomings, including using electric pedal-assisted bikes to attract more users that would not otherwise ride on Seattle’s hilly terrain. With that said, the system may have had a list of its own shortcomings. Unfortunately, we will have to wonder what could have been, because on January 13^th, Mayor Ed Murray decided to redirect the planned funding to bike- and pedestrian-safety projects. However, Mayor Murray claims he remains “optimistic of the future of bikeshare in Seattle.” Having said that, Pronto will be shut down on March 31^st 2017. So if you want to get in any last (or first) rides on our city’s favorite (and only) bikeshare system, be sure to do so before then.

Although Pronto has had a relatively quick lifespan, bikeshare in Seattle does not have to end here. Perhaps as the public’s memories of Pronto begin to fade, the city can attempt to start over with a more appropriate bikeshare system, perhaps even with pedal assisted bikes. However, it is hard to say just how long it will be until the city is willing to put millions of tax payer dollars at stake for something that previously failed.

Still, there is some good news. Companies are starting to emerge that are willing to take on this financial risk, in order to compete in the bike sharing market. Take Bluegogo, a China based bikeshare company with hopes of releasing their free float bikeshare system in the San Francisco area. With a free float system, the company does not require any infrastructure on streets because the bikes do not need stations. In place of stations, free float systems use GPS and connectivity, much like Car2go or Reach Now. This allows a user to track the bikes via a mobile app, and then rent the bike and lock it up wherever she or he wants within set boundaries. However, with the initial intention of simply dumping these bikes throughout the San Francisco area, city officials expected that the bikes would be a nuisance, and so they threatened to impound them without first getting proper permitting. For the time being, Bluegogo has done a smaller rollout than the initially planned mass dump of bikes. Unfortunately, without the proper permits, the parking of the bikes is limited to privately rented parking spaces that Bluegogo has paid for, which defeats the purpose of a free float system.

With Seattle’s bikeshare future in limbo, and the status of Bluegogo in San Francisco uncertain, I wonder if Bluegogo would be willing to take a chance on a city that come March 31^st will not even have a bikeshare system to compete with them. This is after all, what motivated BMW to bring Reach Now to Seattle. In reality, Bluegogo is probably not willing to take the risk on Seattle, a city that as previously discussed, failed to adopt bikeshare. With that said, if you are Bluegogo and you want to prove to the rest of the country that your bikeshare system can be successful and run in harmony with a city, then why not take the chance? If your bikeshare can make it here, it’ll make it anywhere.

Perhaps Bluegogo is just the rebound Seattle is looking for in this post Pronto breakup, due to the low level of financial risk it poses on the city itself. However, there still exists one major limitation, the helmet law. With this law in place, I doubt many people will want to carry around a helmet to go pick up their bike. Regardless of its level of enforcement, this law still creates a boundary for spontaneous rides and therefore negatively effects ridership levels. However, if we can get Bluegogo on board, I say we test Mayor Ed Murrays “optimism”, and see if Seattle would be willing to issue the proper permits to allow Bluegogo to operate legally while also removing helmet laws. It is a tall order, but the possibility for success is there.