Today, Raleigh City Council voted on a bike share program. It passed. Basically, the city will own a bunch of bikes, and residents will be able to pay $80/year to access those – pick one up at a nearby bike station, use it for short trips, and return it. If you’ve traveled to other large cities, you may have seen these sorts of programs in action.
Those $80 fees won’t cover the whole cost, and it’s early, so a lot of the details haven’t yet been worked out. But it’s certain we’re talking about some tax dollars to pay for it all.
So here’s my question. Do people in Raleigh even really want this? We’ve spent a lot of money over the past few months creating dedicated bike lanes around the city. We’ve done it at the expense of car lanes, increasing congestion for drivers at places. And maybe it’s just me. Maybe I drive at the wrong times or something. But I haven’t seen anyone using those bike lanes.
Not easily deterred, the city is also going to provide bikes now. It just makes me wonder. If you provide the lanes, and people don’t use them, then what makes you think that providing the shared bikes will make a difference? Are we really sure there’s even a demand for this?
If it were a private company using private money, then I’d not worry about it. The company does its market research and decides to invest. If they get it wrong, then it’s the investors who lose money. But in this case, it’s the city, which means it’s my money on the line. I don’t really want to invest in this. I’m not sure there’s much demand, and I’m certain that it’s outside what I’d consider the right role for government.
And surely, if people really DO want it, then there’s an opportunity for a private company to come in and provide it, the same way private companies provide taxis in the city. There actually are already places that rent bikes. I’m guessing they’ve done a pretty good job of assessing the demand and meeting it in a profitable way. So if they’re not providing this exact thing, maybe that means there’s not much demand for it? And doesn’t it seem likely that this subsidized government program will hurt the small businesses already meeting what demand there is?
It all seems rather ill-conceived to me. Perhaps Raleigh should reconsider.
