Bike share programs are popping up all over the country, and the City of Austin to get in on the action. Today, the City will be hosting B-Cycle, a project of Humana, Trek Bicycles, and ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky that launched it’s first bike share program in Denver this year. They appear to be the only North American bike share operation positioning themselves to be a national brand, think Zipcar on two wheels. They will be demonstrating how the program works with sample bikes and stations, and the City of Austin is looking for feedback on what you’d like to see in a bike share program.

Austin Bike Share Demonstration
Wednesday, October 27
11 AM- 2 PM
Austin at City Hall, 301 W 2nd St

I’ve written about how I’m not so sure bike share is the best use of cycling infrastructure dollars right now. I also wonder why the City is so prone in running to a large national company to provide these services when we have the talent and know-how locally to create our own program and build local wealth and expertise (see CoA dumping local non-profit Austin CarShare for German multinational Car2Go, the death knell for Austin CarShare.) I guess shrinking budget means the City can’t invest in partnerships to create local services, but it all seems short sighted.

Regardless of how you feel about bike share, I encourage you to stop by City Hall today if you can make it to see what bike sharing is about.