Bike Share in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

Sorry but... eat or get eaten.

If the city/Region/Dropbike screwed up and weren’t able to deliver this year, then... they deserve whatever perceived “badness” comes their way.

For the community, this is excellent, because it means we get more choices.

The "badness" comes in the form of public opposition because of an operator acting badly...i.e., people will oppose *any* bike share becomes *some* bike share operators were bad actors.

The city/region/dropbike's inability to reach an agreement this year, does not justify another operator, operating illegally, whether limebike would be operating legally, I don't know.

More choice is often a good thing, but when it comes to public infrastructure like this...it is entirely possible for too much choice to instead choke the market.  I would love more choice in transit to Toronto, but if there were a dozen bus operators offering routes, and none of them could profitably offer good service, you might end up with lesser service, than if the market was regulated--the same may occur with bike share, a dozen bike share operators might want to litter the university with bikes, and have nothing in Cambridge or Kitchener. A balance must be struck (not to say that we have a good balance now, with either bike share or transit to Toronto).

So I think the region/city is right to be cautious, and I personally don't feel they're being overly so, when it comes to drop bike they seem to have been quite open an accommodating, and additionally, apparently able to leverage the offer into a more comprehensive system than dropbike initially wanted to commit too.