Portland-based Alta Bicycle Share has done it again. They've been chosen to operate a 500 bike, 50 station bike share system in Seattle. The announcement was made today by Puget Sound Bike Share (PSBS). According to a press release, Alta will work with PSBS to plan, launch and sustain a bike share network that will launch in Seattle by spring 2014 and then expand throughout the Puget Sound region.

PSBS Executive Director Holly Houser wrote on the company's Facebook page today, "We have been and continue to be impressed with Alta’s approach to bike share and their ability to partner with cities and successfully deliver location-specific systems." (more...)

Mia Birk made the pitch for bike share
at the Porltand Art Museum last night.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

At the Portland Art Museum last night, high society donors mixed with corporate bigwigs and local bike industry luminaries. While PAM got in a few words about their upcoming major exhibition of Cyclepedia (opens June 8th), the main reason for the gathering was to wine-and-dine potential sponsors of the forthcoming Portland Bike Share system.

While the event put a shine on bike share in hopes to woo sponsors, it underscored an urgent need to raise money. So far the system only has $1.8 million in the bank thanks to a federal grant. However, the estimate to fully launch (750 bikes) and operate the system in the first year is $6.6 million ($4.7 million to get the system on the street and $1.9 million in operating costs). That leaves a significant funding gap that PBOT and Alta need to close. Given that the goal is to launch a complete system, rather than trickle out bikes and stations in phases, the City would prefer to wait until all that sponsorship money is in hand before moving forward. (more...)

As a follow-up to our Front Page story yesterday, see the City of Portland press release below. City Council voted 4-0 (Saltzman was out) to approve Alta Bicycle Share as the bike share operator. (For past coverage, see our bike sharing story archives.)

Portland Bike Share moves forward with council approval of Alta contract

Private sector takes lead in fundraising for transportation option that’s seen worldwide success

PORTLAND, Ore. – Mayor Sam Adams and his fellow Portland City Commissioners approved a contract 4-0 today between the city’s Transportation Bureau and Alta Bicycle Share for the private sector company to begin fundraising for a system of up to 750 bicycles for public use.

“I’m very excited to say that America’s most bike-friendly city is now one step closer to offering a bike share system that’s convenient, affordable and sustainable. Alta has developed an ambitious plan and will bear the burden of fundraising to cover costs. I’m proud to have a homegrown company doing this work and confident the private sector will be successful in making this system a reality,” Mayor Sam Adams said. “Bike share is a game-changer for bicycling in Portland.”

Bike share systems let people check out bicycles to ride from one point in the city to another for a small fee. In cities across the globe, bike share systems have proven popular and successful by giving residents and visitors a fast, inexpensive and easy transportation option. People use bike share to get to work, run errands, connect to mass transit, visit friends and family or enjoy a city as a tourist.

Alta Bicycle Share designs, deploys, and manages bicycle share programs and systems worldwide. The company currently operates bike share systems in Washington, D.C., Boston, Chattanooga, Tenn., and Melbourne, Australia, and is preparing to launch bike share in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada. Alta’s headquarters are in Portland.

Getting real about the costs.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

At its meeting tomorrow, Portland City Council is set to authorize the contract with Alta Bicycle Share for our forthcoming bike share system. In advance of that vote, the City has released new cost estimate numbers for the project.

Thanks to new numbers from Alta, we now have much more detailed estimates for both the launch and ongoing operational costs. According to Alta, it will cost $4,599,823 to launch the system (that's up from initial estimates of about $3.8 - $4 million). Those launch costs break down into $2,589,323 for 75 stations, $827,250 for 750 bicycles* and $1,183,250 to manage the launch. (more...)

Get ready Portland, it's coming!.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

On Friday afternoon, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) announced that Alta Bicycle Share had won the contract to operate the Portland Bike Share system. Given Alta's Portland headquarters, their success in nabbing major bike share projects around the country, and Birk's own close connections with the City of Portland (she used to run the City's bike program and her other company Alta Planning + Design is a frequent contractor), the decision wasn't a huge surprise.

But while Birk's company had a huge head start in the race for this contract, PBOT must have also been aware of the flood of headlines about software problems and delays that have dogged Alta Bicycle Share for the past few months.

To learn more from Alta's perspective, and to get an update on the issues underlying that publicity, I asked Birk a few questions via email... (more...)

It's a "Bike-Share Snare" in the Willamette Week

The City of Portland hasn't even chosen a vendor for their Bike Share system yet; but the local media is already showing its skepticism about the project. Two recent stories — one in The Oregonian, the other in the Willamette Week — have given the Bureau of Transportation a clear indication that the PR stakes are high with this project.

Last month, the Willamette Week looked into what they see as a "Bike-Share Snare" due to the fact that PBOT has yet to choose a vendor:

But with seven months left until the projected start date, the city hasn’t decided how many bicycles it will rent out, for what lengths of time it will rent them out, or how much it will charge. That’s because it doesn’t have an operator for the program.

(more...)

(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Alta Bicycle Share, the spinoff of Portland-based Alta Planning + Design that has dominated bike-sharing headlines after securing a string of high-profile contracts in major U.S. cities is now getting a much different kind of publicity. Delays to system roll-outs in New York City, Chicago, Boston and Chattanooga have gotten national media attention and have raised questions about the company's ability to handle their growth. For their part, Alta acknowledges that the culprit in the delays is new software their partner Public Bike System Company (PBSC) is developing to handle the complex wireless transactions and rental processes at the bike share stations.

Alta uses the Bixi platform, which was developed by Montreal's municipal parking authority by the PBSC. The Bixi system is operated with software developed for them by 8D Technologies. As PBSC began to export the successful Bixi system around the globe, they continued to use the 8D software. But, when PBSC expanded into the U.S., 8D alleges that the company cut off ties and began to use a new software system developed by an American company (Alta only operates the system, they are not involved with the software development). 8D has sued PBSC for breach of contract and the two companies are still trying to work out their legal differences. (more...)

And then there were two.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The City of Portland announced this afternoon that they've narrowed their choice of vendors to manage the city's $4 million bike sharing system to just two candidates: Alta Bicycle Share and B-Cycle.
(more...)

Much has been debated about the how the use of helmets impacts bicycling rates (or doesn't). Now the debate is finding a new battlegrounds among the burgeoning crop of bike-share systems throughout North America.

Vancouver B.C. is an interesting case. The city is lauded as a leader in bicycling (they're even hosting the major international cycling conference Velo-City this week), yet they are saddled by an all-ages, mandatory helmet law. Like Portland, Vancouver is working on their roll-out of a bike-sharing system and many people are watching how the helmet equation plays out. After all, if helmets are mandatory, that means every person who checks out a bike-share bike must have one on.
(more...)

(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Seeking to help boost enthusiasm and raise operating funds for our forthcoming bike share system, the leader of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Rob Sadowsky, has joined forces with four other partners to form Portland Bike Share Incorporated (PBSI).

The other founding members of this new non-profit organization include car-sharing expert (currently working with Getaround) Steve Gutmann, the executive director of Portland Streetcar Inc. Rick Gustafson, citizen activist and Portland Planning Commissioner Chris Smith, and Rob Bennett, the executive director of the Portland Sustainability Institute. (more...)