Seattle Bike Share Program Shuttered

Sad news for Seattle... Didn't realize they have a mandatory helmet law. Curious of what that is doing for the overall growth of cycling in Seattle since it went into effect.

Today marks the end of bike share service in Seattle, as the city scraps its Pronto Cycle Share program. The system started in 2014—and expanded to 500 bikes and 54 stations—but never met the same level of success as bike share programs in other major US cities, like New York, Chicago, and DC.

More than 3,300 people signed up for a membership and nearly 143,000 bike-share trips were taken in its first year of operation, according to the Seattle Times. But by May of last year, membership had dropped by nearly half and ridership had similarly plummeted—signs of doom for the fledgling program.

Multiple theories abound as to why Pronto ridership remained relatively low for such a top bike-friendly city. Factors like Seattle’s notorious hills likely played a part: Just 35 percent of Pronto rides started at a lower elevation than they ended, the Times has reported, confirming we all love to coast at 30mph but don’t like pedaling heavy bike-share bikes up Capitol Hill. Drizzly weather also might have had a small, pruned hand in those numbers as well, considering use of the service peaked in the relatively dry month of July. 

Then there's the city’s mandatory helmet law. Since 2003, Seattle required anyone riding a bike to wear a helmet or risk being slammed with a $102 fine. But part of the convenience of bike share in most places is being able to hop on and off without lugging around any special equipment. Only three other world cities have imposed helmet laws with their bike share systems—Vancouver, BC, and Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia—and the latter two struggled with low ridership as a result of this sacrifice in convenience, until they followed Vancouver's lead in including helmets and disposable helmet liners with the bikes. In 2015, Seattle installed helmet dispensers at every kiosk, but this still just created one more barrier for convincing new users to try out bike share.

Full article: 

http://www.bicycling.com/culture/seattles-bike-share-system-shuts-down