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by Chris Jones
Yesterday, visitors to Golden Gate Park had an opportunity to try out this newfangled European bike sharing scheme that is currently all the rage somewhere that's not here. Seven bikes were hauled in by a Canadian company called Bixi and set up for temporary use by locals. After sniffing around the vehicles and touching them to make sure they were real, park goers enjoyed riding the three gear bikes around in circles, or something.
Unfortunately, the bikes were hauled away at the end of the day by the Bixi folks, possibly never to be seen in San Francisco again. Life in this city can be such a tease. Remember when Gavin Newsom guzzled a glass of water collected out of the tailpipe of a hydrogen fuel cell car and we all thought global climate change was over, hooray? Yeah? That was five years ago. How's your new hydrogen fuel cell car treating you? Exactly.
The current injunction against the City's bike plan obtained by local bike hater and noted professional dishwasher, Rob Anderson, remains in effect indefinitely, preventing implementation of a bike sharing program in San Francisco. Now, despite the fact that the EIR that was conducted for the bike plan was certified by the city's Planning Commission, clearing the way for the injunction to be lifted, appeals have been filed by Anderson and the South Beach-Rincon-Mission Bay Neighborhood Association to prevent the plan's implementation. We'll see if these appeals go anywhere in court. Everyone cross their fingers. Holding your breath not encouraged.
Still, incentives to encourage bicycle commuting are still being pumped out left and right. Bike sharing currently exists in a form for city employees, who have the option of obtaining a free bike for their work use out of the city's bike fleet. Also, the IRS started offering a tax incentive (20 American dollars a month!) to bicycle commuters in January. Other jurisdictions in the Bay Area are also moving ahead with their bicycle infrastructure improvements. For example, San Francisco's mysterious neighbor city, Brisbane, started painting their bicycle lanes blue, also in January. Progress is being made, whether Rob Anderson likes it or not.
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There are too many degenerates wandering SF for this to ever work. I give it a week and all the bikes would be parted out and sitting on blankets along Market St.
Sad, but true.
Maybe the vending machine could be configured to deliver a powerful electric shock when someone touches a locked bike that hasn't been checked out.
Chris Daly would deem this an affront to the fine people of his district - not to mention that it is racist and elitist.
RobinSF: I'm bored of you now.
That's ok, I'm just bored.
Bike sharing seems to work wonderfully in Barcelona ... then again, I don't think they have the same frequency of bike thefts, car break-ins, and other issues we face here.
As an aside, I want to make sure everyone knows that the Rincon Hill Neighborhood Association is a distinctly separate neighborhood group from the South Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood Association that filed an appeal on the Bike Plan EIR. The RHNA is looking forward to a redesign of 2nd Street that involves community input to the MTA (as should have happened on the first go around, but didn't) ... but we do not support appealing the EIR for the entire bike plan's other 59 projects.
Is that like the difference between the Peoples Front of Judea and the Judean Peoples Front?
I'm picturing them having West Side Story-esque gang fights on 2nd Street.
More similar to the difference between Telegraph Hill Dwellers and North Beach Neighborhood Association ... while some boundaries are shared, the two organizations are distinctly different with two (to my knowledge) completely different boards. That's not to say we're not friends ... but we're not always in agreement either.
Clarification.
"The current injunction against the City's bike plan obtained by local bike hater and noted professional dishwasher, Rob Anderson"
http://holierthanyou.blogspot.com/2009/07/dilemma-for-rob-anderson.html
Rob does not hate cyclists. He has contempt for cyclists. Apparently there is a subtle but important difference.
Also, the IRS started offering a tax incentive (20 American dollars a month!) to bicycle commuters in January.
That's pretty much the same as offering car buyers $4500...
I was in Paris last year, and bike-sharing scene there seemed to work great. And Paris isn't exactly a crime-free city, either.
Then again, this NY Times article seems to think that bike-sharing in Paris is also quite prone to bike-thefts and vandalism.
Thanks for the link to Mr. Anderson's blog, I hadn't seen it before. It's always nice to be able to read the real time rantings of teal life lunatics!
Bookmarked!
One of my friends pointed out that bike sharing in SF would result in "puddles of bikes" at the bottom of hills.
One thing I saw recently in Germany was unattended rental bikes, you check them out via text message.
They could offer a small rebate if the bike is returned to a higher elevation than it was rented from. Maybe even give cash back if the rented vs. returned elevations are different enough and there is a shortage of available bikes at some high spot. They could start a cottage industry of people riding rental bikes uphill.
First time coming across Rob Anderson... what a tool!
I'm sure some points he made in opposing the bike plan did bring to light problems implementing that plan may generate but way to destroy your credibility by calling everyone who says anything negative towards you a "bikenut" "idiot" or "liar". Get a life!
That's right, nothing to see here. Move along now.
Love,
Brisbane