I frequently see this around town. EMPTY Bike Town racks. Seems like our bikeshare system is too expensive and unreliable for people to count on as a transportation option.
I do see often see bikes at homeless camps and being ridden by homeless appearing individuals. It’s free for them. Even been told not to take a bike parked next to a tent by its inhabitant. Unfortunately it seems like BIKETOWN has just become another taxpayer supported homeless service instead of a viable transportation service for all citizens.
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Funny you bring this up as when I was going to work the other day I purposely looked around to see if there were any bike or scooter shares around. Once upon I time I would see lots. 1s and 2s in a variety of locations. This time, it was like a ghost town. I saw one scooter abandoned on a hillside and one bike on a sidewalk. Way less than usual. Did they just end up in the river like the other failed bike shares from times past?
Kind of hard to have a share program to get folks to use it instead of driving when you can’t find any to ride.
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Much like bottle drops have become drug addict “banks”. Completely unusable for anyone else so effectively the 10 cent deposit has just become another homeless tax as well.
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Biketown bikes are too big for me at 5 feet tall. Shame. Also very expensive. I wish Portland had safe bike parking around retail locations. I would never feel safe parking my e-bike near Trader Joes or New Seasons…
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