Bike Sharing programs can work!

[Noodleboy13]

"Twin Cities bike sharers are being rewarded for good behavior.

A deposit on Nice Ride bikes, which was $250 per bike two years ago, has been erased this year because so few bikes disappeared in the program's first two seasons.

That's few as in none."

"The $250 "authorization hold" was a sore point, Dossett said, particularly for people who rang it up on a debit card, making $250 unavailable to them from their accounts. Last year it was reduced to $50. "I'm thrilled to be able to say that's all gone," he said."

This program started here in Mpls a couple years ago, and it is apparently a huge success. There are solar powered kiosks all over he city, and I see people on the big green cruisers whenever I go out. Makes me happy.
More at the link.
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/149446485.html

peace,
Noodleboy

[taterguy]

1. Sure, they work in foreign lands but how would they work in America?

[Noodleboy13]

4. This is in Minneapolis

I hope we're still part of the Union.

peace,
Noodleboy

[taterguy]

5. Minneapolis never was part of the Union

Purple people eaters

Prince

Bike lanes

Just a bunch of weirdos.

[Noodleboy13]

7. Shhhhhh

Don't tell everybody!

peace,
Noodleboy

[taterguy]

10. Too late

Although I guess 'everybody' is just people who happen to be reading this thread.

[Fumesucker]

2. ...

Nice Ride riders, who tend to be dressed in work or street clothes, have been criticized for not wearing helmets. But Dossett said there has not been a single injury to a Nice Ride biker.

One concern with the St. Paul operation is an expected downhill flow of bikes. Borrowers are likely to check out bikes on the high ground near the Capitol or St. Paul Cathedral, ride down to the Mississippi riverfront or Harriet Island, then find an easier way back up.

[gratuitous]

3. Good for Minneapolis!

Portland tried something like that a few years ago. Every bike disappeared within days. There's talk of trying it again.

[Noodleboy13]

6. The fact that zero bikes have disappeared here is amazing.

I know they have radio transmitters in the frames, and the support crews have laptops that shows where the bikes are in real time, that seems to have curbed the theft aspect.

Sorry it didn't work in Portland, it is another bike friendly city.

peace,
Noodleboy

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. It might have something to do with the fact

that the bikes are hideous - they're a disturbing bright yellow-green. You'd have to want a bike really badly to steal one of those, and you'd never be able to fence the thing.

[gratuitous]

9. Portland painted their bikes a bright bile yellow

They were rehabbed bikes of no discernible value, and the yellow color made them instantly recognizable. But we have a little problem with meth hereabouts, a lot of scrap metal dealers who hand out ready cash and don't ask too many questions.

Locator devices might be a good idea.