Should bike sharing be self-supporting?

Are bike sharing programs part of the city transportation system, or are they businesses disconnected from city services? That seems to be the question raised most recently in response to the financial problems of New York City’s Citibike, the largest and most prominent bike sharing system in North America.

Should bike sharing be self-supporting?

Are bike sharing programs part of the city transportation system, or are they businesses disconnected from city services? That seems to be the question raised most recently in response to the financial problems of New York City’s Citibike, the largest and most prominent bike sharing system in North America.

Mode choice? There’s an app for that

For almost a decade, per-capita VMT has shown a flat to downward trend. But don’t be fooled; people are traveling. Transit ridership is up. Biking and walking for transportation continues to increase. Car-sharing and ride-sharing services are seeing a boom. New technologies, including smart phone applications and interactive web sites, give these intrepid travelers the tools they need to decode the mysteries of public transit and investigate the growing availability of non-motorized travel options.

Bike share both reduces use of other modes and induces new trip-making

The bike sharing system in Washington, DC has gathered and analyzed travel data about members’ usage of both the system bicycles and other travel modes. Evidence on mode choice comes from user surveys. It is intuitive to suspect that the emergence of a new mode would both substitute for other modes and induce new travel. And that is what the Capital Bikeshare survey finds.

Cities feel left out of transportation discussion

At the first national conference of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), city transportation and elected officials expressed dismay that cities may be on their own in moving forward with innovative plans and policies. Attendees were frsutrated that neither cities nor transportation overall got much attention during the recent campaign season.