(image credit: B-Cycle via wcnc.com)
I recently heard news that Charlotte is launching, on August 1st, a bike-sharing program. B-Cycle (www.bcycle.com), a company that has popped-up in several cities across the US, has installed 20 bike-sharing stations in and around the Uptown area. The concept is that you pay a yearly fee for access to the system, and as a registered user, you can borrow a bike from one station and return it either back to its home or to one of the other 19 stations peppered across the Uptown area. The first 30 minutes are free, and each additional half hour costs you four dollars. There’s a kick-off ‘Ride-Out’ of Uptown on Tuesday evening, where the B-bikes will be ridden by users and delivered to each of the stations.
Although I have seen these types of systems work with great success in other cities, I must say that I have a wait-and-see attitude about how much they’ll get used over time. I think it’ll be a big hit for the first couple of months, and then interest will wane. We’ll probably see an upsurge in usage in the fall, and then winter will come, and usage will naturally drop again. It will be interesting to see how much use they get when spring rolls around again, once the newness of this shiny new ‘green’ transportation alternative gets a little rusty and squeaky.
We’ve seen incredible amounts of city-wide improvements since it was announced that Charlotte would be the host of the Democratic National Convention, and I question the timing of this system’s arrival. Is this another way in which the city is preparing for hosting the DNC? Putting-on a pretty face for all of the attention we’ll be getting? – maybe. probably. – but I like this one better than the resurfacing of Commonwealth Ave for the third time, for this improvement is one in which we can actually participate. This, like the creation of more parks and greenway areas, walking routes, biking routes, light rail transportation, etc., gives the good people of Charlotte yet another reason to get outside and engage each other. We are friendly people here, and I’m glad to see that we have been provided with yet another venue through which to be social and share even just a few seconds of our lives with each other. Fostering our natural tendencies toward friendliness and making people feel welcome is about the greatest ‘improvement’ we can make in preparation for our big event in September.
All in all, and pessimism aside, I’m excited about this new city amenity. I truly hope that it gets widespread use and that we as users end up finding good value for our dollars when using it. On top of that, I would say that anything that promotes getting us out of our cars and outside into the fresh air is a good thing!
