An article in The New York Times this week called “French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality” describes the setbacks facing Vélib’, Paris’s bicycle rental system. The system, which operates similarly to the BIXI set-up in Montreal that I mentioned in my previous blog, has seen the consequences of public good abuse. Since its introduction in 2007, Vélib’, a government-run program, has seen 80 percent of its initial 20,600 bikes stolen or damaged. One reason for theft might be the fact that even though the rental process includes a $250 deposit, the cost of each of Vélib’ bicycle, which is specially designed, is actually $3,500. Another cause attributed to theft and vandalism has been the bicycle’s role as a symbol of the trendy urban middle class and tourism. Resentful youth in France, which are known for making their opinions known through action, have made the bicycle out to be a target of vandalism and abuse.
Similar concerns were voiced in our group’s meeting at the Rangeview courtyard a few weeks back. If we painted the shared bikes a certain distinctive color and made them out to be recognizable to act as a symbol, they might receive more negative attention than positive. The youth of Highland Park and surrounding neighborhoods might not take well to “Oxy” bikes. We can use the Paris case as evidence for potential issues.
Also, as the Alternative Transportation team writes our proposal, we need to remember to include appropriate and enforceable punishments/penalties for damages, etc. If we launch our program with too much of a relaxed policy, we could see the abuse of our program even by our own Oxy students because they see it as a resource they can do whatever they want with.
Given our random assortment of bikes, keeping them individualized will probably be easier and cheaper anyway. Would a $50 fine for a lost bike be appropriate? There could be an issue if someone greedy realizes that a couple of the bikes could be sold for $100, but generally it seems fair to charge close to average replacement cost.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the set fine. It would be too hard to individualize each bike with a certain cost and also would probably make some bikes more popular than others to rent out. With the individualized pricing we could also run into problems in terms of the program being fair and non-discriminating since we have deemed some of the bikes as female frames and for more suited for a certain height, weight, etc. We want to make all bikes as equally accessable and attractive as possible!
ReplyDeleteA fine is more practical than an initial deposit. Unlike the Vélib’ program, we will have more than a cash deposit linking us with the perp -we'll have access to the student's Oxy account information, preventing anyone from "getting away with it." I assume we'll adopt an unforgiving stance towards those claiming the bike was stolen or abused by someone else while under their rental. As for the individualization of the bikes, maybe we could get the campus involved by staging a naming contest. We could put each bike on display (once our new rack is installed) and invite students going in-and-out of the library to drop ideas into envelopes associated with each bike. This could raise awareness while giving us some badass names to choose from.
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