When I was in Frankfort two years ago, I took a picture of how “shared bikes” are treated by people.
It’s the tragedy of the commons. No one owns the capital resources, so they don’t care about how they are treated. When done with them, dump them off and walk away.
I cannot imagine that UI students would treat these bikes any differently than Germans do.
This will be a tremendous waste of money and will be done away with in less than 5 years after it is instituted — all with the money going out of the taxpayers’ pockets.
How about we put some skin in the game? How about Rebecca Couch and the Moscow City Council members each put up $5,000 of their personal money to help fund this. If it’s a success (profitable), they get their money back. If not, they forfeit it.
This from the Daily News:
The 50 pedal-assisted electric bicycles that were expected to hit the streets of Moscow and the University of Idaho in April will now be rolled out in early August, according to a UI official.
The one-year dockless bike share pilot program will cost $45,000 — a total the city and university will split. Gotcha Mobility will be responsible for maintenance, repairs and placement of the bikes.
Couch said those with a UI email address will be able to ride for free for the first 30 minutes. After that, a 10 cents per minute charge will be tallied. She said she expects non-UI affiliates to pay 10 cents a minute from the time they start riding but other membership options will likely be available as well.