We have been waiting for bike share—for over two years. And it seems, Long Beach, that we are finally in the more tangible stages of receiving it.
According to Nathan Baird, Mobility Coordinator for the City of Long Beach, the City will be going out to bid in the next six weeks to pursue a bike share program that will be launched in Downtown. 50 stations, 500 bikes. The cost? $2.2M through a federal grant.
But what about Bike Nation, Long Beach’s proposed bike share vendor? The company had announced in August 2012 that they would invest some $12 million into a bike share program here in Long Beach was met with astounding cheers. At the time, they had expected some 250 kiosks—yes, 250—with the first ones to be installed in downtown by early 2013. It was touted as a free—yes, free—investment.
As for that whole thing, Baird responded succinctly: “That’s about as much info as I can provide right now.”
That we are now in 2015 and still have yet to find a single kiosk is more than eyebrow-raising. LA had to ditch Bike Nation after it was discovered that the bike share company did not know the advertising parameters set by the second-largest city in the U.S. This also follows their abrupt leave of their bike share program in Anaheim, where the City of Anaheim claimed Bike Nation “chose to walk out themselves.” This all precedes the cryptic photo of a skirt guard of one of the bikes for the long-anticipated bike share program promised to Long Beach. The caption on the skirt guard—”Long Beach, your bike is waiting”—silently and automatically creates a plethora of jokes. Then yet another photo, albeit still cryptic, of an array of permits issued to Bike Nation by the City of Long Beach. The caption? “Station permits for Long Beach have been issued. Stay tuned[.]”
Let us not forget that Bike Nation was finally kicked out of OC after lacking any form of viability: it generated a measly $5K in a year but cost about $100K.
Long Beach will apparently being joining Santa Monica, also pursuing its own bike share program, and Metro, who announced that they will be creating a county-wide bike share program.
Here’s to hoping, Long Beach.
