I still say that the cost is prohibitive for the average high school student to want to bother with a bike rental for a few hours each day.
I drive, I see empty bike lanes in some deep suburbs, and maybe I can see why you shake a fist if you do not witness the bikeshare in a different area.
I need to provide some
math 101 corrections to your post.
- my city provides subsidized bikeshare memberships for low income (Hamilton Everyone Rides Initiative)
- average bike rental length by a
highschooler is between 8min and 15min here in my city
- Renting is as
instant as tapping/inserting a card or punching in a pass code.
FIVE SECONDS.
- Rent is instantaneous if you have the annual membership tapcard/insertcard (or memorize code) take any random bike
- Rent Starts when you undock
- Rent Ends when you dock (at
ANY dock. Doesnt have to be original dock)
- Unlimited undock/dock. For Toronto, just dock every 30min or less.
- Commuter to school is less than 30min. Just dock at nearest dock to school.
- Some bikeshare systems like my Hamilton SoBi, lets you end rental at any normal bike rack (not official docks) thanks to an electronic U-bar
- DONE.
- High schoolers that I know never had to pay any extra fees.
It's just an unlimited cycling pass for one flat annual fee.
- Freedom of One way bike trips! Rent start at undock. Rent ends at school's dock.
-
Responsibility ends when you dock at school's dock. So if bikeshare vandalized, you are not responsible
- Take bus home if its raining at end of school day.
- The freedom of not moving a wet dripping bike up 3 floors of apartment
- High school students in Hamilton loves it because of all the above.
"Highschooler needs to rent bike few hours a day" = someone (clap) who (clap) does (clap) not (clap) even (clap) understand (clap) what (clap) a (clap) bikeshare (clap) is.
(no offense)
So, please learn some bikeshare 101.
It's not like going to Hertz Rent-a-Car for Christ's Sake.
It's Uber for Bikes.
Uber is simply renting a car+chauffer at a pushbutton.
Bikeshare is the same. It's not really classic "renting" experience because your bikeshare pass card is a skeleton key that unlocks any bike instantly anywhere. See a bike? It's yours baby!
Ever tried a Uber? For simplicity, the bike share app (e.g. like my SoBi Hamilton app),
let's call it the "bike hail" app. The bike-hail app will tell you nearest bike stations and will tell you if your destination (school) has stations you can "end" rental at. Grab bike. Ride bike. Lock bike. Done! Forget about the bike, your responsibility ended for the 1way trip. No theft/weather worry for return trip. The return trip is almost always by a different random bikeshare bike anyway. There's no fiddle duddle, the card is the key that instantly unlocks thousands of bikes at your heart's content. (Just lets you unlock one at a time though). Flat annual fee!!! No extra charges if you are under 30min/ride (Toronto) or under 90min/day (Hamilton). Unlimited bike trips all year long! Now you know why bikeshare is like Uber for bikes.
Maybe you dont want it in your city but
Please Understand Bikeshare 101
Sure, onetime tourist bikeshare rentals are inconvenient. Maybe you tried and got pissed. But chrissakes, sign up properly like you do with Uber. Then you get that instant unlocker key..... to make bikeshare FUN thereafter!
Or are you an Apple Pay user and prefer to unlock via iPhone? Then you can use the app (to unlock bike with some systems), Transit App can unlock Toronto Bike Share bikes. So many ways to make unlocking bikes as easy as Uber, or even easier.
Some highschools/colleges/universities now provide free or discounted bikeshare memberships or discounts for such (defacto flat fee unlimited cycling pass) - and students love them because for less than the price of 1 metropass, gives you unlimited bike trips for a whole year. Those Students who are holding an unlimited instantly bike-unlocking card, WILL (on average) use them and get more exercise.
Waiting 6min for expensive Uber, 17min for next non-overflowing bus, or using that card in your wallet to immediately unlock any tempting bike on a nice sunny day at the school bikeshare station? The buses are kind of iffy here sometimes (google #FixTheHSR). You guess which the actual student here just unlocked.
One tap. Take any bike. Abandon bike at any different station (including school stations). Done. Repeat unlimited for free. Your ride to school is one brief rental. Your ride home from school is a separate brief rental. Bikeshare membership = behaves as unlimited cycling pass card that unlocks a bike faster than boarding a bus. And you can still take the bus in the other direction when it rains.
Sorry for being blunt, EastYorkTTCFan. As a driver, a transit user, I feel your "
Empty Suburb Bike Lane Angst" but I hope you educate yourself
more fully on How A Bike Share System Works. The annual pass card instantly unlocks all bikes as fast as Presto tap. The average highschooler over here rents a bikeshare for 8 to 15min to ride 1-way to school here. Rent/responsibility ends when the bike is parked anywhere, school dock, home dock, any dock.