The City of Portland wants to talk about its bike share and e-scooter rental program. 10 years after the Nike-sponsored Biketown system launched to much fanfare, the Portland Bureau of Transportation has grown its fleet of orange bikes into a relatively reliable form of transportation for thousands of people. Today there are roughly 3,000 bikes and scooters available as part of the “Shared Micromobility” program for rent in a service area that touches nearly every square mile of the city.
Now PBOT says they are, “thinking through new ways to shape the future of e-bike share and e-scooter share,” and they want to benefit from your opinion. Today the bureau launched a Shared Micromobility long-term planning survey. If my memory serves, this is the first time they’ve conducted such a survey. I haven’t heard any rumors about big changes afoot, so I can only assume this is being done so PBOT can keep their finger on the pulse of folks who use the system. I also feel like these systems are pretty static at the moment and if everything stays the same ridership will likely stay flat and the fleet of scooters and bikes will become even more outdated and in need of a refresh.
That’s why I believe the one thing on the horizon that could have a major influence on the future of this program is funding. From what I can tell, the current system is starved for cash. The older model “Watson” bikes (the orange ones) are woefully outdated and a majority of them have batteries in dire need of replacement. Ideally the entire fleet would be replaced with the newer, “Cosmo” models (the grey ones), but that would require a big investment. The system also needs a lot more bikes in order to meet its vast potential as a true public transit system.
With PBOT in such a dire budget situation and the political capital necessary for more public funding of Biketown, the only bright spot for Biketown investment is the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF). PCEF has already funded Biketown’s low-income program and in their latest annual revision of the PCEF Climate Investment Plan, the City of Portland has made it even easier for Biketown to win grants through this program. Among the changes to the CIP that’s under consideration by Portland City Council this month, PCEF will add “Biketown infrastructure fleet addition” as an eligible use of funds.
If we expect councilors and the City of Portland to continue to support and invest in bike and scooter share, it’s important they hear what folks think about the system. Which brings me back to the purpose of this post: to encourage you to take the survey.
I took the survey this morning. It was very quick and the questions were straightforward. Take the survey here.
Thanks for reading.
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None of the math works out. The closest bike to me is a six minute walk away in the wrong direction. The closest place to properly lock it back up when I get home (because the charging people don’t put them in proper places) is a 15 minute walk away. Most of my trips are 20 to 40 minutes. The cost for my regular trips would come to ~$2,000 a year.
The only benefit would be not having to do maintenance, $150 a year in expenses and not having to worry about theft. Which isn’t worth a 50 to 100% increase to my commute times and $2,000 a year. I could buy a new ebike every two years with that forgo any maintenance and worry about theft a lot less.
It’s not a particularly well designed survey, which is typical of what PBOT throws up when they ask for “public input.” They can then say they have data but the data aren’t good data. Which is a bit like saying “I have a bike” if you own something with flat tires, a rusted chain, no seat, and a frame that is six inches too big or too small for your body type. Yup, that’s a bike/those are data points. Nope, they aren’t actually useful.
I used Biketown for a night out around new years and found a few annoyances the hard way. I tried to get a bike in Sellwood but there were only scooters. Which are limited to 12mph on the springwater, wtf?? I’ve never gone so slow on that stretch in my life. At the corral near the sellwood bridge, I spotted a bike and tried to lock up the scooter which I couldn’t do because I was in a no-lockup area. I was in the corral! Wtf. That explains why there were bikes and scooters locked up to every nearby pole but none in the corral.
Later I got a bike in Lents to ride home to Sellwood and found out that everything south of foster is out of the service area so I had to pedal that whole beast until the assist kicked back in around Reed.
For more standard trips, and if I can find a working bike, I like it. No theft risk and pretty speedy riding, in the service area.
Its too expensive. I miss the non-electric bikes.
Agreed. 35 cents per minute adds up quickly. Including the $1 unlock fee, a 5 minute ride costs as much as a 2.5 hour Trimet pass. I used Biketown maybe a few times a week when it was just the old non-electric clunkers. Now I don’t use it at all.
Ah, Portland’s Biketown—where the bikes are more “finders-keepers” than “ready to ride.” It’s like a scavenger hunt every time you try to get on one. The racks are emptier than a pub during dry January, and if you do find one, it’s a game of “Is this one going to work?” Will it have a flat tire? Is it completely dead? Who knows!
And don’t even get me started on the cost. If you’ve got a golden ticket to free rides, you’re living the dream. But for the rest of us? It’s like paying for a rental car, only it doesn’t come with air conditioning, and half the time, the engine’s missing.
Honestly, Portland seems to have perfected the art of offering half-baked services and asking the people who are already paying taxes to just, well, put up with it. They’ve got the cash, sure—but apparently, it’s all going to “help” the people who don’t pay for a thing.
So, how about it, PBOT? Maybe fix the bikes, fill the racks, and then we’ll talk about how to make this whole thing better. Until then, I’ll keep walking past the empty bike racks while my tax dollars go toward “visionary” projects like charging stations for scooters I can’t find.
What do you reckon, though? You think they’ll ever make this whole system, you know, work? Or is it just going to be Portland’s version of a very expensive bike share museum?
At least in my neighborhood, the biketowns seem to be treated as the personal e-bikes for the homeless. That’s where they are all parked at, because homeless can ride them unlimited for free, so they just horde them all for themselves in front of their encampments
I have my own ebike so I didn’t renew my Biketown membership. Now, when I do use, it’s just so expensive. If I am going more than a mile or two, it ends up costing more than the bus. If there are two of us and we are going more than a couple of miles, it’s almost as much as a rideshare ride. There are times when it’s incredibly convenient, but the limited availability and charge for locking out of station and high per minute rates all became a reason I tend to avoid it now.