Has the Biketown Experiment Run Its Course?

One of those Biketown e-bikes has been chained to a pole near my house for several weeks, seemingly forgotten. I feel like I’ve seen quite a few other bikeshare bikes looking similarly abandoned recently. Has the Biketown experiment run its course? —Braking Away

As a card-carrying member of Generation X—the cohort that perfected deadpan hipster cynicism—I’m in no position to complain about Americans’ reflexive assumption that everything is terrible. Optimism has never been fashionable, and I can’t imagine myself as a dewy-eyed idealist. That said, the preemptive surrender of assuming the worst about our institutions (“Aah, they’re all crooks!”) probably greased the skids for the worst to actually happen: Now they really are all crooks. Do we need a national attitude adjustment? You first.

All this is a very roundabout way of saying that the Biketown project isn’t terrible! In fact, it’s been going great, no thanks to Negative Nancies like you: In 2023 (the last year for which figures are available) ridership increased by 14%, the e-bike fleet swelled from 1,500 to 2,000 vehicles, and the system added 13 new stations.

The nattering nabobs of negativism may point out something else that swelled: the price of a bike rental, which rose by 50% in that year. But lots of prices went up in 2023—and anyway, who pays retail? If you are on unemployment, are collecting food stamps, or can otherwise demonstrate that you make the same amount of money as an alt-weekly newspaper columnist, you may qualify for the low-income Biketown for All program.

A Biketown for All membership costs nothing and includes 200 free minutes of e-bike rental each month. Additional minutes are just a nickel—quite a bit cheaper than the 17 to 35 cents a minute the rich folks pay. Of all Biketown’s triumphs, none has been more triumphant than Biketown for All. Of 650,000 Biketown trips in 2023, nearly 60% were taken by these equity users.

So you see, Braking, Biketown is alive and well. Why does the public believe otherwise? Could it be the decision to paint the bikes in Nike’s signature Day-Glo orange? Fluorescent colors fade quickly with exposure to sunlight, and the sight of so many e-bikes looking washed out and decrepit may have contributed to an impression that the program was struggling. But it’s not struggling, and I guess we should try to appreciate that fact. Even if it makes us look like huge dorks.

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.