[sustran] Public bicycle strategies for troubled communities

[Eric Britton]

Dear friends,

 

Here is an idea I would like to see if we can perhaps develop together, and
suggest that we do this in the new mobility café – i.e., you post to
NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com.

 

Okay, We have pretty well established over the last several years of real
world hands-on experience that public bikes can do some pretty interesting
things . . . in certain kinds of cities. The basic conditions of success
include the usual: topography, climate, land use, quality of supporting
infrastructure, street safety, etc., etc.  All of that we have gone into
amply here.

 

But one thorn in the side of this great new mobility idea is: how if at all
do you make it work in communities that suffer from certain kinds of social
and economic dysfunctionality? For example areas with very high youth
unemployment and the social behavior that does along with it.

 

The trick with the public bike is that they are out on the street and we can
be sure that if there is any residual anger within the community, they are
going to suffer. Even in calmer cities, vandalism and theft are always very
much there are requiring the fullest attention of the city and their public
bike partner.  

 

Until now the pattern response that I keep running into when we speak with
people from the Global South mega-cites for example (but not only them) the
public bike idea does not get too far before it gets tossed out the window
for a lot of “practical reasons”. 

 

Hmm.

 

Your thoughts on this?

 

Eric Britton