I don't think these bikes are nice things. Companies use them to undercut public transportation and then increase the prices once there are fewer viable options. They also spend zero money on actual infrastructure to integrate them well in to cities. On my city they fill up all of the public bike parking so my bike can't fit anywhere. They overflow on to sidewalks. We can't have nice things because we live in a capitalist society where companies don't give a shit about people's loved experience and just look for a way to make another buck.
The fact that they’re littering your city’s bike parking and walkways is merely a regulatory issue. Bike share certainly doesn’t undercut public transportation; in fact, they are a last-mile solution that augments public transportation. The ideal bike shares are implemented through public-private partnerships. Rarely do public entities have the infrastructure to implement their own bike shares. They also benefit tremendously from economies of scale such that some private is simply necessary. But the close public partnership helps with the regulatory issues.
You know what’s actually undercutting public transportation, littering our public spaces, getting tremendous public subsidies, and taking up incommensurate space? Cars. The problem is absolutely 10000000% not the bike share.
I live in the Netherlands and we actually have publicly funded bike share here, so these bikes are definitely undercutting this with their "sign on" deals and flash discounts. I accept that this is a unique situation, but other options exist for last mile transportation than forfeiting government funding and our own money to a private company for a public service. But also yes, cars suck!!
I think the Netherlands is probably like 99th percentile on robustness of the public sector and functional urbanism so for sure the gold standard. I’d be opposed in your situation, too. Anywhere in the US is relegated to public-private solutions in the transportation sector for a long time thanks to decades and decades of public sector gutting in all respects.
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u/chino17 8h ago
This is why we can't have nice things