Re: Mayor Gray and Planner Patterson: When will Lancaster offer Bike Sharing?
How would bike sharing be funded? Beyond the initial investment, organization and maintenance costs could be substantial. Grants have dried up for the most part, as have donations by businesses.
Like with so many other outstanding ideas, the stumbling block for bike sharing is money.
EDITOR: Before investors or organizations can be attracted and funds raised from investors or philanthropists, first there has to be a proposal. Otherwise we wallow in defeatism and continue to re-elect incompetents.
Note there seems to be plenty of money available for further downtown hotel development and bowling allies in the white elephant Bulova Building.
Also Gray and Patterson were eager to spend about $20 million for streetcars.
The real answer is there is no profit for fat cats in bike rentals.
We would bet there would be more bike riders than trolley passengers! And with bikes we are talking about tens of thousands, not muti-millions.
You think bike rentals are a good idea? Then put together a few kindred souls and start looking how to get it going.
Heck, we’ll put up the first ten thousand.
The streetcar proposal fell apart because of a lack of funding. Donations to start a bike sharing program would be wonderful, but how to keep it operating indefinitely? Like the streetcars – and the surveillance cameras – the money isn’t there.
Funding for public projects from both government and corporate donations has dried up in the 21st century, thanks to an economy that is stuck in neutral and a government paralyzed by fear of debt and fear of taxes.
EDITOR: You don’t know until you try. I suspect that a good proforma for rental bikes would find backing in town from people who think it would be good for Lancaster and not worried their relatively modest investment.
The thing is someone has to try! Then find a second and you have a start of a commitee or a board of directors.