Dockless Bikeshare - The Dockpocalypse Nears

[Judd]

Dockless bikeahare started in DC today. Saw a Mobike in the wild at World Bank today.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I have thoughts...not coherent thoughts, but sort of vague outlines of thoughts about this, and they are mostly dark and negative.

[jrenaut]

I remain hopeful if skeptical. There really isn't much public space in the city that's not already allocated to cars, and there's a lot of competition for it.

[LhasaCM]

I have thoughts...not coherent thoughts, but sort of vague outlines of thoughts about this, and they are mostly dark and negative.

Anything along these lines?

[Judd]

I have thoughts...not coherent thoughts, but sort of vague outlines of thoughts about this, and they are mostly dark and negative.

I'm going to try riding one today just to try it out, but I'm also highly skeptical that they are a good idea, particularly since CaBi is a robust and publicly funded system (at least in the places where I work and play).

If DC does decide to allow dockless bikeshare operators in the city, I hope that the franchise fee to do so is adequate to cover the externalities.

[TwoWheelsDC]

Anything along these lines?

That's like, the penumbra...

[drevil]

Anything along these lines?

This is more along the lines of what I'm thinking...

[jrenaut]

If DC does decide to allow dockless bikeshare operators in the city, I hope that the franchise fee to do so is adequate to cover the externalities.

If we venture into the dreamworld where this is even a vague possibility, we'd still have to confront the reality that the fees would be used for something else anyway. Like defending against the lawsuits from NIMBYs. I guess maybe you're counting that as part of the externalities though.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I remain hopeful if skeptical. There really isn't much public space in the city that's not already allocated to cars, and there's a lot of competition for it.

I suppose that could be viewed as an advantage for the dockless bikes, since they don't need to be locked to anything. But I worry that they'll just get left laying in the middle of streets and sidewalks and people will get fed up with them. And I worry that these will be conflated with CaBi, and our beloved public bike transit system could once again fall into the NIMBY crosshairs.

[lordofthemark]

On the one hand - new technology! Choice! Convenience! A bypass around NIMBYs!

On the other hand - Fixed costs. Natural public utility. Undermining the possibly more desirable high fixed cost network by skimming the cream - see past arguments about jitneys vs fixed schedule buses, private shuttle buses vs public buses, and more recently, Uber/Lyft vs public transit.

#TwoHandedEconomist #NotALudditeBut #EveryoneShouldTakeMicroEcon #CanIGetCaBiInMyNeighborhoodFirst