A couple weeks ago, we wrote about how New York is taking advantage of the Citi Bike program and replacing yellow taxis with blue bikes. The big apple fell in love with the idea, and now everyone who is anyone seems to ride the two-wheeled advertisements across the city.
For a while, it looked like this same kind of program was headed for Portland, and on paper, that might be a good idea, right? More bikes on the street, frequent stations for said bikes, reasonable rates. And it’s not just New York, there are many cities across the globe who are turning to bike sharing programs. All in all, its appears to be something like a bike version of Zipcar… So where’s the problem?
Unfortunately Bixi, the Montreal-based company who picked up the contract to install the $4 million investment, recently filed for bankruptcy and put to rest any chance of a bike sharing system for Portland in the near future. To keep from placing all of our free-range eggs in one basket, City Hall is putting a hold on its sharing system until another financially stable company gives us a better plan.
