Bike Nation

As Los Angeles quietly (but directly) abandons Bike Nation and Santa Monica pirouettes past both cities to pave the way for its city-wide bike share program, one can't help but ask Long Beach: Are we continuing to go forward with a company which largely ignores the media, lacks a fulfillment of promises, and ultimately seems to wear a name tag it put on itself instead of earning?

It's been no major secret that things with Bike Nation aren't pedaling so well.

While New York City is enjoying the successful launch of CitiBike, the nation's largest bike share system, Los Angeles is still waiting for Bike Nation to begin installation of the 4,000 bike bike share system it promised at the April 2012 CicLAvia. The system was supposed to begin operation last winter, and then last April, but there is still no announcement for when the system will begin operation.

In just under an hour, Bike Nation will publicly announce the nine locations for kiosks in its initial rollout of what is promised to be a massive bike share system for Los Angeles. Last April, Bike Nation promised a 400 kiosk, 4,000 bike bike share system to be installed in Downtown Los Angeles, Westwood, Venice and Hollywood in the next several years. The bike share company promised to invest $16 million in its system. An independent estimate from one of their competitors estimates that they could earn $40 million in revenue in the next decade.

Bike Nation, the bike share company that has struck deals to bring bike sharing to Anaheim, Long Beach and Los Angeles, unveiled a new bicycle design today at the Pro Walk Pro Bike conference in Long Beach. The "Gen 2 Made in the U.S.A. Bicycles," (G2) will be used in Long Beach and Los Angeles, with the first generation  (G1) of bicycles going to Anaheim.

The Long Beach City Council, in a 9-0 vote, will permit Bike Nation to launch a 10-year, $12 million bike share program in the city, thereby creating one of the largest of its kind in the state.

It's been a big week for Bike Nation. While most media will note their plans to bring 2,500 bikes to the City of Long Beach for another Southern California bike share program, a smaller project is going to get big attention in the Los Angeles bicycle community.