Zach Shaner of the Seattle Transit Blog notes the failure of Pronto, the Seattle bike sharing system, concluding:
So while there may be future chapters for bike share in Seattle, the Pronto saga will come to a close on March 31 with a series of unforced errors and unnecessary political pain. Severely undercapitalized, hobbled by helmets, and going against best practices for network design, Pronto was doomed to disappointment at least and failure at most. For those of us broadly supportive of public biking in Seattle, the slow-moving demise was sad to watch. For now, a second try will have to wait.
I don’t know what went wrong here, but it’s safe to say either it’s not bike friendly territory, the experts have a lot to learn – or experts were not in charge or not properly funded.
(h/t Lloyd Alter on Treehugger.com)
