New Bike Shares come to Charlotte. Might they be in Davidson soon?

Uptown Charlotte has seen a lot of changes in recent years...too many new buildings to count, old buildings getting face lifts, many more restaurants and residents. It has seen a growing number of higher quality street food vendors and even the occasional street performers to augment the regularly appearing street preachers...all good things for a growing urban area.

Recently, something else has started showing up all over Uptown - bicycles - lots and lots of bicycles.  Hundreds of orange, lime green, and silver bikes are just parked on the corner - almost every corner.  They aren't in bike racks.  They aren't chained to trees or lamp posts.  They are just parked here and there and everywhere.

So, what are all these random bicycles parked all over the place?  They are Charlotte's latest endeavor into shared transportation, or in this case what's called the "bike share" movement.  They are from companies called Spin (orange), LimeBike (green), Mobike (silver), and Ofo (yellow, coming soon)

Charlotte has had bike sharing in Uptown for several years via the government subsidized B-cycle program.  However, the big difference is that these new entrants are dockless while B-cycle requires users find an actual docking station as shown below.

The new dockless systems allow users to find the nearest bike using a smartphone app, unlock the bike by scanning a QR code, and pay using a credit card.  One-way rides start at $1 for 30 mins.  When the user is done with their trip, they just lock the bike's rear wheel and leave it anywhere they like.  If it is not there when they return, then they just find another one to use.  That shouldn't be too hard as each of these new companies have licences to put hundreds of these bikes on Charlotte streets.

It remains to be seen if the new systems take off in ways B-cycle has not.  The docked system is less convenient and more expensive for casual use.  It really only appeals to Uptown residents who happen to live and work near docking stations and will use it regularly.  If the new fleets of dockless stations take off in popularity, don't be too surprised if you see them expanding.

Might this type of thing one day be seen in Davidson?  Bike shares are also becoming a thing with college campuses and Davidson is a college town.

While the idea may sound far fetched, it shouldn't be seen that way.  In a town like Davidson, these seemingly small and benign factors can have far ranging consequences on how the Town makes decisions and spends money.

Davidson Town Hall has a history of hiring consultants who favor this sort of thing, and the Town is currently undergoing a Mobility Plan.  When former Commissioners Beth Cashion, Brian Jenest, Rodney Graham, and Stacey Anderson approved the Griffith Street Hotel in a controversial lame duck vote before leaving office, one of the "conditions" they put on the developer was to include building a  bike sharing station.  See staff analysis here.  Things like the increasingly ubiquitous Big Fat Sidewalk (aka Multi-Use Path) show up on lists of proposed bond money projects, and getting these things built was at least one driver of the Beaty Street RFP.  All of this is to support bicycle use.

Is all that necessarily a bad thing for Davidson?  Maybe not.  In fact aShortChronicle likes riding bikes as much as the next person.  However, it does provide a good example of how these ideas have a way of seeping into the decision-making process in what is often a less than fully transparent manner.

...and that is something the town does need to change.

Update:  They are already here.

Here is a photo of something callef VBike already parked at Davidson Commons.