Governing Magazine/October 2008

CHRISTOPHER SWOPE'S URBAN NOTEBOOK

BIKE-O-MATIC

I'm a big fan of biking, and I love the idea of car sharing. So when
my hometown of Washington, D.C., launched North America's first bike-
sharing service this summer, I signed up right away. After taking
"SmartBike" out for a spin, however, I'm not sure this heralded
alternative to congestion and high gas prices lives up to its hype.
 Here's how it works. Some 120 bikes are locked at 10 self-serve racks
located around D.C.'s inner core. For a $40 annual fee, I get a
membership card that I can take to any of those stations, wave over a
reader, and get a bike unlocked. The bike is mine for three hours.
When I'm done with it, I can return it to any of the 10 racks. As for
a helmet and a bike lock, I'm on my own.
 The automated racks are mechanically impressive, and the bikes
themselves--3-speed roadsters with a chain guard to keep your pants
from getting greased--are fun to ride. However, the system suffers
from what I call the "last block" problem. In congested cities,
biking's advantage over driving is that it gets you from point to
point--home to work, say--directly. But as bike sharing has been
designed here, I have to walk eight minutes to pick up a bike, ride it
to another rack, and then walk another couple of blocks to work. It
feels a bit like having to go park the car.
 It's much different in Paris, where bike-sharing has won over 3
million users. In Paris, there are 20,000 bikes parked at some 1,500
stations around the city. So picking up or dropping off a set of
wheels is much easier to do. Bikers pay by the half hour--there's no
membership fee--and the first half-hour is free. That's an invitation
to use the bikes for quick errands or short trips.
 Here, by contrast, cost is an inhibitor. Forty bucks a year may not
sound so onerous. But for the same money, one could easily buy a bike
on Craigslist and never have to share it with anybody. (If one of
D.C.'s bikes gets stolen or damaged on my watch, the penalty is a
whopping $550.) Cities might do more to encourage bicycling by
organizing used bike sales. Better yet: Invest in bike trails, roadway
lanes that separate bike traffic from auto traffic, and locker-room
facilities for two-wheel commuters.
 I'm sure some people will find niche uses for bike sharing. I spoke
with one woman who loves it (she used to walk to work; now, biking
saves her five minutes). Still, it's hard to see this experiment, at
least as it's been conceived here, generating big changes in mobility
habits.


HOW POOR IS POOR?

The federal poverty line for a family of four is $20,444. It's hard to
find anyone who thinks that number reflects reality. First of all,
it's based on 1960s math regarding the price of food, which now
accounts for a smaller proportion of household spending than it used
to. What's more, the federal threshold is exactly the same in
expensive cities as it is in more affordable places to live.
 New York City is trying to change this. It's developed its own
poverty line, which factors in the local costs of housing, utilities,
clothing, medical care, transportation and child care, in ad0dition to
food. It also accounts for income offsets, such as public subsidies
for food and housing. Add it all up, and New York's poverty line
pencils out to $26,138. By that measure, 5 percent more New Yorkers
are living in poverty than the federal government officially
recognizes. The new calculation won't win New York any additional
federal funds. But city officials say that having a more refined view
will allow them to direct their own anti-poverty efforts in a more
sophisticated way.

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