Two bike-sharing companies want to bring a cycling option to Arlington without docking stations via a 16-community regional plan.
Representatives of one, LimeBike, a national company based in California and founded last year, received a welcoming reception Monday, March 26, from selectmen, who voted unanimously to have the manager sign a memo of agreement. The other company is Spin.
Unlike Hubway, which had made a pitch to town officials in January 2017, LimeBike offers bicycles with locking mechanisms that allow parking anywhere.
Company rep Scott Mullen said dockless bikes might launch this summer. He cited the vendor’s minimum capitol cost of $250,000, with no operating cost.
Margy Weinberger, senior counsel for the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC), which is behind the regional effort, said having a series of municipalities coordinate is a key to success.
Set apart by regional approach
Nat Strosberg, town senior planner, said he is excited about the prospect and that a regional approach is not going on “anywhere else in the country.”
Weinberger added: “We’ve seen bike sharing work in other countries, and we have seen it fail.” She said she expects this effort to work because MAPC “is there to enforce the contract.”
The memo manager was authorized to sign is MAPC, allowing work with both LimeBike and Spin.
Read about how bike-sharing has worked — and not worked — at this blog >>
She said the state agency is third-party neutral about which companies makes its bicycles available. She called the 16-municipality agreement the “crux of how this works.” Five have signed so far.
Called a balanced system
“This is an organized, balanced system. The communities decided how many bikes should be available” at any particular time, she said.
Responding to a question from Selectman Kevin Greeley, Weinberger said “rebalancing” means deciding on the right number of bicycles for a community.
“This is a real asset,” said Clarissa Rowe, serving her last meeting as interim selectwoman.
After Mullen brought in a green bike so the public could see one, Selectman Chairman Joseph Curro Jr. asked whether a cellphone alert provides a warning when a cyclist is leaving a service areas covered by the agreement.
Mullen said that would occur, but bike use is meant for short trips and no cyclist would be stopped at a border.
“This is not a replacement for [bicycle] ownership,” he said.
Selectman Dan Dunn, a cyclist, said he has used Hubway, but has found its strategy lacking.
Manager disappointed with Motivate, Hubway
Earlier in the meeting, Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine expressed disappointment with Hubway’s operating entity, Motivate, and current Hubway communities (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Brookline) for their of lack of willingness to share any of the proceeds of the title sponsorship for the system.
Chapdelaine clarified March 28 that Blue Cross/Blue Shield is the new title sponsor — changing Hubway’s name to Blue Bikes — “and the existing communities decided to keep all of the proceeds of that sponsorship agreement within the existing communities.
“That left Arlington with having to consider making both operating and capital investments if they wanted to become part of the Hubway system. These investments would be made while the title sponsor was granted advertisement placement on the bikes that would be located in Arlington. In the final analysis I found this to be untenable, and I could not recommend moving forward with this approach to the board,” he wrote.
Chapdelaine said the town is looking at spaces for parking convenient to the Alewife T station, including near Thorndike Field.
Dunn noted possible available space behind the station, which is in Cambridge.
“If you bring bicycles, people will ride them,” Mullen said, citing a test starting last fall in Malden, which he called successful. “This is a game-changer.”
Planning memo offers background
A March 9 memo Jennifer Raitt, director of planning and community development, and Strosberg laid out some details for dockless bike sharing.
Arlington’s Bikeshare Working Group, includes representatives from the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee, Transportation Advisory Committee and East Arlington Livable Streets, as well as planning. Strosberg said they have been looking at options for about 18 months.
“While the terms for extending Hubway into Arlington have recently become more flexible,” they wrote, “such an extension would still be a considerable expense, and the Group is currently pursuing an alternative. Last year, the town and many neighboring municipalities were approached by several dockless bike-share companies interested in establishing operations here.”
Dockless bikes include a wheel-based self-locking mechanism and do not require ground-based docks, as do Hubway bikes.
Last October, MAPC put together regional procedure for dockless. Read about it here >>
Who are in the region
In addition to Arlington, the 15 municipalities working with MAPC are Bedford, Belmont, Chelsea, Everett, Lexington, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, Newton, Revere, Waltham, Watertown, and Winthrop.
Among other efforts, the town’s Bikeshare Working Group helped to choose LimeBike and Spin, the two vendors that will operate in the regional system during its first year. All capital and operations costs will be borne by the vendors.
“Of course, each municipality must conduct due diligence to determine whether it should join the regional system,” the memo says, “and there are key steps that remain before the system can begin operating.” First, is to sign a memo agreement, which governs how the municipalities will work with each other. A final memo will follow.
Jan. 11, 2017: Bicycle-sharing could pedal into town in a year, with Hubway favored
This news summary was published Wednesday, March 28, 2018.
