[sustran] city bikes/free bikes

Todd Litman litman at IslandNet.com
Wed Apr 22 08:47:43 JST 1998


At 01:59 AM 4/21/98 -0700, Obwan wrote:
>Sadly I too must concur with Todd. Although the poor are given to
>complain and loudly about a lack of goods provided to them for free,
>quite ironically what they do get for free is not care for and the
>donors are made to feel they have wasted their efforts.

I should point out that it is not necessarilly low income people who are
the intended users of free bikes, or the main misusers. The poor have not
requested the blue bike program, and I suspect that most would prefer the
type of "means tested" distribution I describe. If the target really is
helping disadvantaged people, then giving them to individuals to own is far
best. Most free bike programs have a somewhat different goal, to  make
bicycling convenient as an alternative travel mode (like those bicycles at
Cambridge). I think that this is much more a middle-class, utopian concept.

I don't think that we should blame the poor for their failure to take care
of posessions (an issue for some, not for others), and we should certainly
not assume that the senseless distruction of blue bikes is only done by
lower income people. I suspect that our local late-night drinkers are the
most frequent culprits.


Sincerely,

Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
E-mail:      litman at islandnet.com
Website:     www.islandnet.com/~litman





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