(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland from vandalism incident in April 2017).
“Every trip now comes with a marginal cost. That’s a significant disincentive to using the system.”
— Iain Mackenzie
Amid the excitement around the City of Portland’s big bike share upgrade announced last week, one key detail deserves more scrutiny: The price to use the new electric Biketown bikes will be much higher.
City officials say it’ll be worth it, they’ll monitor usage impacts, and adjust pricing if necessary. Some existing users are disappointed and advocates say they weren’t consulted prior to the price increase and fear it could dampen enthusiasm and restrict access to the system.
Old versus new
Affordability and accessibility is a hallmark of the current bike share system. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) offers a variety of plans, relatively low fees, and has been flexible and innovative in their pricing strategies since the system launched four years ago.
The current system has four basic pricing tiers: pay-as-you-go, month-to-month, Biketown For All, and an annual membership. Biketown 2.0 will no longer offer a monthly plan, so let’s look at the three remaining tiers.
Currently, users can become “Pay As You Go” members with a one-time, $5 sign-up fee. After that, rides cost $0.08 per minute. Come September, pay-as-you-goers will be billed $1 for every ride and then $0.20 for every minute. This is similar to how e-scooter billing works.
Biketown for All, the program for people with low incomes, is currently $3 a month and comes with 90 minutes of free ride time per month. That plan will go up to $5 month with zero free minutes and a cost of $0.05 per minute. PBOT says Lyft has agreed to give people 400 free minutes per month.
The popular annual membership is where most of the pain will be felt. The yearly plan is currently $99, comes with 90 minutes free, and costs $0.08 per minute after that. An infographic shared by PBOT last week said the annual pass would be $99, “Plus 10-cents per minute.” It didn’t mention there’d be no more free rides.
Advertisement
Portland bike advocate RJ Sheperd created a tool to compare new Biketown prices to the current system as well as TriMet, New York City’s Citibike system (which offers both regular (analog) and e-bikes) scooters, and cars. His model assumes two rides per day. I ran the tool based on 30 minutes of riding a day and 225 trips per year. The result? The new Biketown system would cost $774 per year, eight times the current system. That being said, that’s still cheaper than an annual TriMet pass ($1,125), on par with Citybike’s e-bikes, and much less than an equivalent amount of use on e-scooters ($2,407) or a private automobile ($8,558).
(*Please note caveats with this cost comparison data including: E-bike trips will be much shorter given the higher average speed, TriMet offers a range of annual passes that are cheaper than their standard fare (like youth fare, low-income, senior discounts, and no on), and car ownership costs of course vary widely.)
Analog BikeTown: $0.44
E-BikeTown: $3.44 (8 times the cost of Analog BikeTown)
TriMet: $5.00
Analog CitiBike: $0.80
Electric CitiBike: $3.75
Spin (E-Scooter): $10.70
Vehicle Ownership (w/o Parking Fees): $38.04
Analog BikeTown: $99.00
E-BikeTown: $774.00 (8 times the cost of Analog BikeTown)
TriMet: $1,125.00
Analog CitiBike: $179.00
Electric CitiBike: $844.00
Spin E-Scooters: $2,407.50
Vehicle Ownership (w/o Parking Fees): $8,558.00
Price up, priced out
Portlander Joe Hand has been a Biketown member since 2018. Or I should say, had been a member.
“Details like rates had to be negotiated to get the best deal for Portlanders. We get a larger service area and e-bikes, at no cost to taxpayers.”
— Dylan Rivera, PBOT
Hand figures he paid a total of $190 for three years of an annual membership (after discounts were taken for parking credits) because most of his trips would be under 90 minutes. “I loved bike share because of the flexibility it offered,” he shared recently. “I’d often walk to get coffee or lunch with my co-worker (we both work at home) and then could grab a bike, stop at the grocery store, and bike home.” The price increase made him rethink his membership. “I haven’t been using it lately but generally like the idea of supporting bike share, so I kept it. However, with the pricing change, I asked for and received a refund.”
Given his riding habits, Hand figures it might be smarter to just buy a new bike. “I’ve been thinking about getting an e-bike, so this may be the push I needed. Buying a new e-bike instead of bike share is a no brainer at that price.”
Biketown member Josh Hetrick has similar feelings. “This new cost structure really craters the usefulness of the entire system for short-ish trips,” he shared on the Bike Loud PDX email list. A self-described choice rider, Hetrick added that, “Previously it was filling a unique role where transit didn’t fit the trip well and the bike ride could easily be cheaper, but now the costs are much more comparable and its role is murkier… I’d like to be excited about the e-bikes and the service area expansion, but this is a big downside.”
Iain Mackenzie, an architect who pens the Next Portland blog and is also a member of the PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee, is excited about the introduction of e-bikes. “But I’m very disappointed that it comes at the expense of traditional bikes and includes a large fare increase,” he shared with me recently.
“With the new fare structure, an annual member who uses the 90 minutes they previously had included in their membership will pay $9 — almost twice the price of a TriMet day pass,” Mackenzie said. “While most people probably use Biketown less than that, every trip now comes with a marginal cost. That’s a significant disincentive to using the system, and those costs will quickly add up for regular users.”
Advertisement
Mackenzie is also miffed that the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) wasn’t asked for feedback on the new prices. “It is hard to imagine TriMet or the Portland Streetcar proposing such a large fare increase without any public consultation happening, but that is what happened. At no point in this process was the Bicycle Advisory Committee consulted, or even informed. This is a big change to a part of Portland’s transportation system and it shouldn’t be done so lightly.”
PBOT confirmed that the last time Biketown was on the BAC agenda was in 2018.
Why the increase?
When bike share was first pitched and passed, elected officials made an unfortunate promise: They would create this amazing new public transit system with zero public subsidy. Bike politics being what they were at the time, broad, mainstream support for shared rental bikes was so flimsy that adding funding form public coffers was thought to be an invitation for controversy.
So Portland launched a 1,000 bike system without any down payment of their own. Even the bikes themselves were purchased with a $2 million federal grant awarded by Metro in 2011. Then founding sponsor Nike stepped up with $10 million in sponsorship to get the system running. This time around the City of Portland won’t own the bikes.
This lack of skin in the game from PBOT gave contract partner Lyft (which owns Biketown operator Motivate) leverage in negotiations. When asked for her view on Biketown’s new pricing structure, Tarani Duncan, a consultant and former product engineer at Uber and Lyft, said, “The biggest issue with bike share schemas is the lack of public subsidy that would enable operators to bring prices down.”
When asked to respond to price increase concerns, PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera said, “The cost of operating an e-bike system is higher, but we think it will be worth it.” He said feedback from the bike committee in 2018 and City Council last April made it clear they not only needed an e-bike fleet, but that it had to reach more Portlanders (which makes it even more expensive to operate). “We heard loud and clear from Council that service to east Portland, creating a good experience for people new to biking, and providing a high-quality e-bike experience were all high priorities,” Rivera said as justification for the higher prices.
“Details like rates had to be negotiated to get the best deal for Portlanders. We get a larger service area and e-bikes,” Rivera said. “At no cost to taxpayers.”
Rivera thinks once people throw a leg over the new e-bike, they’ll forget about the higher price. “These bikes will help more people reach more places, faster and easier,” he said. “People who are new to biking will find themselves biking farther than they ever thought they would, and we think they’ll be inspired to explore biking further, by buying their own bike and growing their relationship with Biketown.”
A “relationship” with Biketown might sound a bit odd, but in some ways Rivera’s probably right. Quality e-bikes like the ones Biketown will launch in September are remarkable. As a regular e-biker myself, I can attest at how they dramatically alter what you think about biking and will forever change your perception of what it means to ride in the city. E-bikes boost the utility of cycling, instill a sense of confidence usually reserved for expert riders, and tilt the balance of power on our streets away from car drivers. Those are extremely valuable benefits that just might make the higher-priced pill easier to swallow.
— PBOT will present the new bike share contract at City Council Wednesday (7/22) morning. Several advocates have signed up to testify. You can watch the livestream here.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
— Get our headlines delivered to your inbox.
— Support this independent community media outlet with a one-time contribution or monthly subscription.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
I’ve had an annual membership since day one, but I am too considering cancelling my membership after the announcement of the new price structure. The analog system gave me 90 minutes a day to commute to and from the Max (about 40 min RT) plus all those extra minutes to run to the store, meet for drinks and provide all sorts of flexibility as I traverse the city. The new system has a monthly fee whether I use it or not and a meter constantly turning over in my head as I head to my destination with each use.
I’d be more likely to keep my annual membership if they added another tier with a daily or monthly allotment of minutes. Get rid of the out of hub return credits, don’t allow annual members to lock up out of hub for free. Heck, I’d pay double the current annual membership as a matter of fact. I love bikeshare, I’ll shout it from the highest point in Portland (within the service are of course), but this may be where we part ways. 🙁
I’d rather like to spend the remaining 90 minutes enjoying the ride through our fair city than manipulating a handlebar mounted abacus. I know I could probably do the math in my head and save money but I’d rather pay the price and only scream once.
Cars are stressful enough, don’t make me beat the clock too.
I disagree on this point. That’s a big incentive to being an annual member too. The nearest hub to me is a half mile away and that doesn’t guarantee a bike will be available. Parking a bike near home means it might be available the following day.
In total agreement otherwise.
I am nervous as hell looking ahead to sharing infrastructure with inexperienced cyclists, which I am admittedly stereotyping since they are renting, on eBikes. Any idea if they are speed-controlled?
20 mph top speed. But keep in mind the bikes will be very heavy, have an upright position, wide tires, bells, lights, and so on.
Great, like getting hit by a truck, but zero insurance. They are mopeds. bicycles do not have motors. This sucks! Another reason that two way “bike” paths are awful.
I got hit by a truck with zero insurance…
Very heavy is relative. Are you concerned about getting hit by a bicycle as a pedestrian or another bike rider? Never heard of bike rider ramming into another bike rider crossway.
I rode one and it’s no different than a bike. It just gives you a boost when you peddle so hills aren’t as bad, but trust me, you’re breaking a sweat still.
I agree…20mph is very fast for novice riders of e-scooter and e-bikes in an complex urban environment. In researching our planned future equipment I will be strongly recommending a lower phase 1 speed of ~14 mph in town. I wish shared micro mobility hardware providers could add a speed governor based on a users’ “ability’ (like mental geofencing)…either based on training or hours on the system would get you a faster ride in steps.
Todd your plan would increase the cost of a ride by as much as 43%, as an experienced cyclist who has no problem riding at 20 mph I don’t feel like paying significantly more to use the system for some period of time until it decides to unlock normal mode. 20mph is a good speed imho because it allows the user to go the speed limit on many portland streets including all greenways which reduces interactions with cars.
I think Todd’s point is valid, and begs the question: will riders now be riding less safely because they’re trying to “beat the clock” and save money?
That should be a big reason that charging by the minute is a bad idea.
20 mph is the top pedal assist speed. It doesn’t mean everyone riding an eBike is going at that speed. It’s like saying no beginner should drive a car that can go more than 70 miles an hour! Which all cars do btw.
While I share the sentiment, were already dealing with the scooters which are very slalom happy. The first month of the eBikes will probably be busy with people screwing around with new toys but I imagine it will fall off.
Really, if I were to go back and count, the amount of riders making dangerous maneuvers are about as likely to be on a rental than a personal bike.
What an assumption: if someone’s on a ride share bike they’re inexperienced?! I live in Chicago and have been a bike share member since our system debuted about 6 years ago. Bike share provided the foundation for me to go on to buy two bikes and I’m looking to buy a third.
Wow. I can’t believe they made it that easy for me to cancel my yearly/founding member subscription. Usually changes to subscriptions for services I pay for usually fall into the “lobster in an increasingly warm pot” realm, but this was just plain dumb.
While Bike Share is a rad concept, being owned by massive, automobile centric companies, these kind of service rots are par-for-the-course. I’ve got to assume it’s part of their business plan “jeez, we really tried to make bike share work, but it didn’t so: carrrrrrSsssssssss!!!!!!”
lol, immediately after cancelling my subscription my credit card was charged for $132.00. I’m assuming this is because I cancelled my yearly plan shortly after the 2020-2021 subscription kicked in. Of course, they never sent an email saying their pricing structure was changing so they are actually the party that breached the agreement first.
Garbage company.
I am guessing Ian does not own or ride an ebike?
New pricing seems fair to me. ebikes are somewhere between bus and a car. More convenient than a bus, faster than a car (and a bike) in traffic. You can cruze at 20mph pretty much during rush hour, all day long, any time of the year.
So yes, pricing seems fair considering the tectonic advantages an ebike offers in town for personal transportation.
Having owned an ebike now for 7 years, I’m still blown away how quickly I can get around town.
I am also willing to guess these ebikes will encourage people to “purchase” their own ebike when they figure out its not that much more in ownership of an ebike compared to accrued annual bike share, or tri-met passes.
Fair point, but e-bikes will become the only option. People powered bikes will be gone.
The biggest advantage to BikeTown is one way travel. Second biggest? No concern that the bike will be stolen.
I don’t own one, but am not sure what the relevance of that is?
Got a lot of downvotes for this, but it was a legitimate question. Why would I need to own an e-bike in order to have an opinion about fare increases on the system that comes along with e-bikes? I’m not unaware of their advantages—as was indeed mentioned in the article. (I’ve used electric bikeshare in Seattle and San Francisco).
Pricing may be fair for the e-bikes, but jacking up the cost of the human-powered bikes to help pay for the new e-bikes and expanded service area is what loses them support. The expanded service area justifies some change, but the new structure is a disservice to every user of the original bikes in the original service area.
Based on RJ Sheperd’s price comparison tool (link above), here are the annual membership differences based on 60 minutes usage every other day:
Yearly Costs:
Analog BikeTown: $99.00
E-BikeTown: $1,191.00
Daily Costs:
Analog BikeTown: $0.54
E-BikeTown: $6.54
Where does this leave current Biketown users? It’s debatable what’s fair for e-bikes, but who asked for this? I would gladly opt for the status quo– malfunctioning analog bikes and all– instead of this.
I took this occasion to scrape all my data from the Biketown portal. Turns out as an annual member I’ve ridden over 3000 miles in the past 2.5 years on the current bikes. I’ve hopped on a bike at least once over 75% of days since I started using the system. Biketown has been great for my commute, trips to the grocery store, and outings downtown where I didn’t want to worry about damage or theft of my personal bike.
According to their data, my average speed was around 8 MPH, which I assume is so low due to the time locking, unlocking, and walking the bike looking for hubs. (On my personal bike I am closer to 14 MPH average, but for very different types of trips!) I don’t expect an ebike would significantly reduce my stop-and-go travel time due to the stop-and-go nature of what I use Biketown for.
That said, I have paid nothing for two years – I returned enough bikes to hubs to pay for my annual memberships and any fees. So, it makes sense they need to change their model to make money. However, I would rather spend the $1000 a year buying another personal bike, even if it gets stolen, rather than using the new pricing model.
Any more info on the basket size decrease? The original has so much more volume from the profile view.
There’s no way that new basket will accommodate a grocery bag (or 24-pack of beer!).
Just drink 6 before you put them in the basket.
It’s important to note that trips on the e-bikes will be much quicker vs the analogue alternative when calculating cost. Just got an e-mtb and love it. I hope that other people get to enjoy the climbs too. E-bikes really can be quite a bit of fun.
That cost comparison seems like apples-to-oranges. They don’t compare the most obvious alternative — ownership rather than rental. Trimet is subsidized, so rarely does anyone pay full price. E-scooters have a different service area. And vehicle ownership is such a drastically different use case that it doesn’t even apply. Maybe something like ZipCar would begin to approximate a similar use model.
I would imagine most Biketown members also have a TriMet pass too, so it’s not an either/or scenario. It’s just significantly added costs.
Any explanation for why southern SE is still left out of the new service area? Seems like accessing neighborhoods via Springwater (and Reed College/Woodstock) would have been an obvious move.
I am surprised to see a switch from a shaft to a chain drive. I would have thought that a belt drive would have been preferred.
I’m bummed about the cost increase… But, perhaps some of the cost will be offset by the face that it will take fewer minutes to get to a destination. These e-bikes are almost definitely faster than those heavy, low-gear pedal bikes were.
The cost model comparisons need to take travel time differences into consideration. A model that assumes 30 minutes of analog usage daily should be compared against an ebike model of 20 minutes daily (anecdotal) because ebikes average a faster speed, especially if there are hills. Now the numbers may still show a net increase in prices, but it may not be as drastic.
I also think that it is a big mistake to eliminate free minutes, but for a different reason. Free minutes will allow people to try out ebikes and discover an increase in range. Instead of considering an analog rental for a 1-3 mile ride, users would consider an ebike rental for a 1-5 mile ride, even if there are hills. My opinion is that riders would be more likely to test out the capabilities if free minutes were included in all plans except Pay-as-you-go.
“instill a sense of confidence usually reserved for expert riders”
Misplaced confidence causes crashes. Expert riders have a lot of experience and training to ride confidently at 20 mph; how fast to take a turn, when to break, when you can ride through a pothole or gravel and when to swerve, how to ride a straight line, how to safely pass, when to take a traffic lane, etc.
I couldn’t agree more robert and this has been one of my concerns for many years re: e-bikes. So far however, as e-bike sales have risen, my concerns haven’t panned out. That is, I’m not hearing about a bunch of crashes/collisions from less-experienced riders because of their new-found confidence & speed.
The e-bike riders I know are experienced and transition to e-bikes from traditional bikes due to age, fitness, longer commute, etc. I worry the BIKETOWN e-bikes are adding the typical young scooter riders to the mix, no helmet, weaving around, sometimes drunk, on a joyride.
The existence of large trucks and SUVs is a much greater threat to public health. I’m not too worried about e-bikes.
E-bike riders pose far lower risk than non-assisted riders, new data shows
Jul. 10th 2020
https://electrek.co/2020/07/10/new-data-shows-e-bikes-are-safer-offer-less-risk/
I have definitely seen e-bike riders hit speeds above their handling ability, but the incidents I’ve seen have all ended in panic braking, not wrecks. The big takeaway is probably that those of us with more time in the saddle should give these folks extra room, especially if they seem short on experience.
Could have predicted this since unfortunately they picked the wrong bike. Shaft drive is inefficient. We’ve known this for 120 years. Obviously a deal breaker for most. (who wants to ride a terrible energy sapping bike ?? ). So now they have to jump to an Ebike. Also the docking is a mess. Why couldn’t they just follow the success of London, Chicago, etc. Ebike means even more complication and cost !
Yearly cost of Vehicle Ownership (w/o Parking Fees): $8,558.00
What? This seems like a gross exaggeration, and not reflective of many drivers’ realities (especially low income drivers). I’ve spent less than this to insure, maintain, and fuel my vehicle (driven several times a week) over the last five years.
I’m very much in favor of the bike share program, but I think we need to be honest about why people make the choices they do.
It’s an average. The giant pickup harassing you out on the highway was probably $50,000 new. Depreciation alone is in the thousands every year. Same goes for the luxury SUVs, sports cars, etc.
Yes, driving an econobox that you maintain yourself can be very reasonable. I’m not sure how that compares to an e-bike share system, though.
including depreciation in a yearly costs always seems so disingenuous to me.
Why? That is the cost of ownership. If you didn’t buy that car, or bought a cheaper car, you would still have that money. I guess this type of attitude helps explain why Americans waste so much money on cars every year. They don’t understand the full cost of ownership…
In the last two years I’ve spent less on maintenance/ownership of my vehicle than two years of being a member of new biketown, including 6 new tires, a new starter, oil changes, air, oil, cabin filters, registration, insurance, gas.
Buying a new car is dumb. I have a pristine Tacoma I got for 10k with 40k miles and I’d rather be able to go anywhere in the continent, move, camp, explore etc… over the next ten years than pay the same amount for a electric toy to putt around downtown. I’d rather buy my own ebike or normal bicycle so atleast I know some hack job mechanic they have working for them didn’t fix something properly.
If you follow the sources, that $8558 comes from AAA (https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/articles/what-does-it-cost-to-own-and-operate-a-car) and breaks down to $3759 depreciation, $1222 insurance, $792 maintenance, $687 licensing, $683 finance charges, and $150 tires. It’s assuming 15k miles driven per year. Those numbers aren’t anywhere close to representative for me, but AAA would be in a better position than me to assess what’s “average”.
$687/yr for licensing seems insanely high. (see my opinion of depreciation above). Also curious how many people are changing tires yearly, considering current new tires can last up to 60K, that would be four years by AAA’s 15K yearly estimate.
As you say, I’m sure some people have these expenses, but pretty fuzzy math for so many drivers.
Average mileage per year is about 15,000 and tires last about 60,000 miles on average (not counting damage that can shorten that life). Small car tires can be had for under $100 per tire, but SUV and truck tires are generally $100 to $200 per tire. That’s a new set of tires every 4 years, at roughly $150 per tire. The numbers are real, even if people choose to ignore them or rationalize it as a non-vehicle expense somehow.
But wait bicycle tires cost more than my Tacoma’s new tires? And don’t last 60k miles
Averages tell me nothing about my cost of vehicle ownership, which is the only number I care about. It’s far, far lower than AAA’s number.
Using averages hinders personal freedom! I demand that every statistic reflect my personal experience exactly.
Using averages hinders analysis.
Nice comparative graphic, but the most obvious comparison is missing: the bike I already have, the one that costs, basically, nothing. 😉
Many people use bikeshare who own bikes themselves. It’s not an either/or.
We seem to be interpreting the graphic differently. Vehicle (sic) ownership is listed… so why not the bike I already have?
How do you use your privately owned bike for a one-way trip? Buy a new one when you are done?
I have been biking for forty years, and I can’t think of a one way trip where having a bike proved to be a problem. I’m not saying others don’t have this problem, but you might not want to assume a bike (my one bike) somehow wouldn’t work in all cases.
Just as you shouldn’t assume that people don’t have the need for one-way trips on a bike. I can think of many:
– Riding to the train station for a multi-day trip. I don’t want to lock my bike up in that part of town for multiple days.
– Biking home late after taking transit to work, because transit frequencies drop off later in the evening.
– Biking to the bars and taking transit home while inebriated
I’m sure other people have examples. Bikeshare is popular all over the world for a reason.
“Just as you shouldn’t assume that people don’t have the need for one-way trips on a bike”
Where did I do that?
I brought up the lack of my own (much cheaper) bike in the comparative graphic; I wasn’t talking about one way trips at all.
Like Chris said, I personally used biketown pretty frequently on nights out to concerts/bars/parties/etc. It would save me a trip back the next day to retrieve my bike, but more importantly, there was no need to worry about theft.
Get a folding bike, duh
“one that costs, basically, nothing”
You some sort of American or something? You clearly haven’t factored in depreciation, and tires…
I see what you did there…
Lyft would rather you be in a car and pay $25.
They also just massively hiked prices in NYC
i agree with you on this.
There’s a lot to like about the new features that this will bring. But this will basically be a different system, at least for the way I usually use it.
One example: When taking transit and a transfer was necessary, I often used bikeshare as a faster-than-walking alternative to the second leg. (Especially if the second leg was not a very long ride but too far to easily walk, or if the service on the second leg was infrequent and incurred a long layover. I’m looking at you, Streetcar …) The new cost structure introduces a marginal cost for every trip, so now it’s a decision between time on transit vs. cost on bikeshare. When membership included a daily allotment of ride minutes, previously it was a no-brainer to grab a bike. Now, I’ll probably either wait out the transfer and stay on transit, or skip transit entirely and ride my own bike if possible. (It’s possible I’ll take consider taking bikeshare for the entire trip now, though bike availability doesn’t always cooperate with that.)
Why riders who use a bike share bike every day and complain about the rental increase not just buy a bike and use it instead of paying per minute or per year? To me, the bike share program is most beneficial for Portland visitors.
Based on what I read here, one of the big advantages of bike-share is not worrying about theft, which is a definitely a concern with buying and owning your own.
This is what PBOT and bikeshare evangelists refuse to admit, the bikes (and scooters) are primarily a novelty for tourists.
The better bike share partnership and city after city have shown us that equitable bike share requires intentional funding and cannot be left primarily to market forces. While station density was a strong argument under the previous bike share system, it is less of a concern now with ebikes. Thus, there is no reason why this system shouldnt reach the eastern city limits.
It is not OK for Council to say “no neighborhood left behind” and then leave the funding behind. In an era of spending almost $800k a day on police bureau (the lionshare of which is general fund), perhaps we could share 3 days worth of PPB’s general fund allocation to ensure a city provided mobility service is truly equitable.
This also highlights the disparities East Portlanders/Comm of Color face: lack of paved streets, lack of streetlighting/sidewalks, greater traffic crashes & displacement risk, all tied to a lack of political representation.
As we saw with scooters, mobility options that offer alternatives to driving are just as necessary east of I-205. This criticism isnt directed at city staff who went through heroic efforts given rapid changes in industry. Rather, it is the acknowledgement that the council that said “no general fund money to bike share” looked completely different than today’s council.
And while Chloe will continue to have my support to the extent she is the most progressive candidate, the irony isnt lost on me that one of the ways she beat her predecessor was through championing equitable and accessible bike share.
Transportation is about economic mobility; the neighborhoods east of I-205 that stand the most to benefit should also be included. Its time to revisit Council’s past assumptions.
What happens to the old bikes? (The ones the city spend $2M on).
Motivate LLC (Biketown) is also rescinding the previously reported recognition of their workers union as well as laying off 75% of the union members.
I just turned off my auto-renewal, which makes me sad. I had ridden 1875 miles on the old system, which I liked, but I understand the need for change and I sincerely hope this new system is useful to locals and that it covers the entire city, including East and SW more broadly in the near future.
As a counterpoint to all the naysaying comments, I am an infrequent Biketown rider currently and I plan to use the system a LOT more when the e-bikes roll out. The price bump isn’t much of a factor for me, the quality and ride experience are worth it.
Just received an email from biketown stating my account credits will not transfer over. 144$ in credit and 3 weeks to use them.
In partnership with Lyft and founding title sponsor Nike, we’re thrilled to announce a major update and expansion of BIKETOWN. Starting this September, we’ll be revamping the app, rolling out a fleet of ebikes, and bringing bikeshare to more Portlanders than ever. Before we get to the deets: BIKETOWN bonus credits* won’t transfer to the new system, so be sure to use them if you have them by September 8.
Yeah, that was a shocker.
I re-subscribed in June, hoping that the fee structure would stay intact for the length of that contract. But then I heard that they were changing the fees anyway, and that I’d have to pay rental on top of the yearly fee that I’d already paid. And now they’re saying that they’re taking away my account balance too? That’s a low blow.
It sounds like riders are able to use credits to change to an annual membership ($99).
I have a $100+ balance, which I’m planning to use to convert from a Founding Membership to an annual membership.
Other leftover credits, hmmm, perhaps I can donate them to the BIKETOWN for All program?
Hey RJ, now do cars!
😉
Still no Sellwood or Woodstock? What gives?
Still won’t be able to use it. Need access in the Mt.Scott/Arleta area, but boundary ends at Foster, same as the bus. Too hard to carry groceries from the 14 bus (10 does not run weekends) half a mile to home with bad shoulders. Was hoping a bike would be available to cover that gap between bus stop and home but no, of course not.
I am also disappointed in the change. I was truly excited about ebikes being added to the service, but I always assumed they would be an option, not the only choice. The old bikes were heavy, slow, and inefficient, and I liked them for it. I just wanted something that would get me around the city safely and economically and the old bikes did just that. After getting laid off, the bikes were no longer something I commuted with, but instead would use to work out with my 90 minutes of free time. This service once let me get around the city faster, cheaper, and with more granularity in destination than the MAX. Now not so much. I wouldn’t be happy, but I would be happier if I could pay double the annual fee to have the free time returned, or just have some sort of price premium for the electric bikes and return the non-electric bikes and have the old deal as an option. Even just halving the price per minute on the annual fee would do a lot. But right now, we are nearing the price of just buying an ebike if you plan on using this service for and hour each work day, especially if you use the service for more than a year. I really hope the conditions of the service are reconsidered.
I’m a tad upset about the new price structure and whatnot because it drastically changes the shorter trips. Here’s an example: I would sometimes ride 15 minutes to the gym, and a lot of times would pick up a bike that was loose. Those trips I might break even or spend 8-16 cents on a trip, and the way back was uphill so it might be 44 cents or something like that. Last year over many trips in a 3 month span I might have paid about $10 total because of all the returns.
That same trip now? It’s looking like $4 each way or $8 roundtrip. Or if I pony up for the annual, it’s still a $1.50 roundtrip but if I take let’s say 100 roundtrips then you have to add $1 per RT. It adds up when you’re pinching every penny.
It’s went from useful to novelty. And I get it I guess, I’m not really the ideal demographic. They want to appeal more to tourists and they are likely going to make quite a bit of money on this. But I guess I’m miffed that there’s no real cheap alternative for me anymore.