On another note, I went to the Bcom website and you can vote for your city to be a part of this.  People should go on line and vote, maybe Bcom will put bikes in for us!  Wouldn't that be nice!

Have you ever rode your bike on the hills? It is no laughing matter and much more strenuous than you'd believe.


I can't wait for the led signs at every bus stop showing when the next one will come. Now, THAT is advancement.

I guess I don't really get the point of shared bikes for full-time residents of a city. The advantages of having my own bike (ok, I admit bikes) in my apartment, set up how I like them, and available without any credit card wizardry required far outweigh...what disadvantages? The storage space? I can envision this being useful in a large metro area where people drive or take public transit into the city center and then want bikes to scoot around downtown, but in Duluth? The downtown isn't big enough to make cycling around make sense. When I have multiple errands to run downtown, I'm biking in, locking up, and running around on shoe rubber. 

I also have some (possibly curmudgeonly) doubts about the ability of the firm to maintain public bikes in a cost-effective way. Internal gear hubs with integrated drum brakes are durable by reputation but, I saw CSS's brief-lived hub-shifting share bikes get trashed with rapidity. 

And yes @mevdev, I love the hills, every last one of them.

I agree with some of the above concerns about bike sharing schemes.  

Bike sharing is mostly not intended for those who already own and regularly ride a bike. These programs aim to get people riding bikes that otherwise wouldn't.  Neither are the bikes built for fast, fight w/ traffic riding as veteran bikers are accustomed. The bikes are comfortable for slow Copenhagen style riding.  The hope is you could ride one wearing a suit and tie for a lunch meeting across downtown, or bike to the stop for your direct bus home rather than having to transfer. A definite advantage over using your own is the ability to take one-way trips. Although in Mpls, they plan on monitoring the kiosks for the number of bikes and use a truck to distribute them more evenly, it does seem likely that in Duluth the bikes would pool at the kiosks at the bottom of the hill.  I for one would not rent a bike to bike up a large hill and then leave it at the top.       

Who exactly will use these bikes and for what kind of trips is an open question.  With programs rolling out this summer in Denver, Minneapolis, Boston, and maybe DC, we'll have a lot of data soon about how (or if) these programs work in the US and how (or if) this could/should be adapted for Duluth.

I should mention that the shared bikes in Boulder were actually free, as in free beer, and not rented.  Very hippie-like.  You found one, you took it without discretion if it wasn't being used.  I sort of frown upon the efficiency of that idea, but apparently they didn't much care at that time.

I agree with Resol, though.  What are the chances you'd ever see a bike left at Blackwoods in Proctor?

Good points Michael. My biggest concern about Nice Ride Mpls, is that Mpls doesn't have the infrastructure downtown (separated bike lanes, etc.) to accommodate novice bikers and out-of-towners from leisurely pedaling the streets on weekdays.

It is a chicken & egg issue for sure.  Either bike-sharing will demonstrate the need and demand for more bike accommodations OR it will be dangerous and infuriate motorists who are just finally learning to deal with experienced bikers on the street.

I have this image in my head I can't quite shake of a scenario akin to setting those annoying four-person bikes (that they rent in Canal Park) loose all over DT Mpls streets in rush hour.

So maybe when it comes to bike sharing, Duluth's generally calmer traffic (and paths like the Lakewalk) are a bigger advantage than the disadvantage of not yet having many on-street bike lanes.

I agree with the comment about all the bike pooling at the bottom of the hill.  What duluth really needs to become is a way to get people+bikes back to the top of the hill. Some sort of chairlift or 'trampe' or cannon