The City of Miami Beach will unveil the region’s first bicycle sharing system here on Wednesday, March 15th, with the introduction of Deco Bike. When complete the system will cover all of Miami Beach south of 85th street with about 1,000 bikes and 100 stations. Deco Bike President Colby Reese gave me a tour of his factory recently, and talked about the challenges presented in being the first to roll out a bike share system in our region.
Phase 1 of implementation will include 50 stations and up to 500 bikes sprinkled throughout Miami Beach south of 43rd Street. Each bike station can hold 12 bikes, and takes the space of two parking spaces.
Lost parking shouldn’t be a concern, says Reese, who notes that Miami Beach has added over 1,000 spaces over the past several years, including the much discussed Herzog and de Meuron designed sculptural garage. Stations will be located in key locations around the city, with more bikes and stations to come in Phase 2, which Reese hopes will come as soon as 60-90 days after the initial rollout. Plans for phase 2 call for expanding the network up to 85th Street, totaling 100 stations, and approximately 1,000 bikes.
One challenges Reese noted was negotiating with FDOT over locating stations in FDOT right-of-way. According to Reese, station locations at the corner of 5th and Alton were relocated because FDOT was requesting financial concessions for their approval of Deco Bike’s station permit. Never mind that the right-of-way is publicly owned and that this system will help expand bicycle mode share – FDOT just wanted their cut of the pie. Luckily, most streets in Miami Beach are not maintained by FDOT, so the crisis was averted, but it does go to show the priorities of our Department of Transportation.
Beach residents will be able to get an unlimited $15/monthly pass, while tourists and other beach visitors will have hourly and daily options as well. Already one of the most walkable and bikable places in South Florida, Miami Beach is uniquely poised to take advantage of the the benefits of a city-wide bike share system. With the implementation of sharrows on Washington and elsewhere in the beach, upcoming revised bicycle parking standards, and now the implementation of a city-wide bikeshare program, Miami Beach is making big strides to expand bicycle use around the city. If successful, other cities in the region like Miami and Coral Gables would be smart to look to Deco Bike as a partner in creating a regional bike share network.
27 Responses to Deco Bike: South Florida Bikeshare Debut
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Great to see the first phase happening.
I have to say that the prices being charged are WAY above average for bike share. In DC, Montreal, and Minneapolis, it’s only $5 for 24 hours and Denver charges $6. 30 day passes in these cities range from $25 – $30. By comparison, DecoBike is charging $14 for 24 hours and a whopping $49 for 5 days, yet you still can only use the bikes for 30 minutes at a time. Why are the prices so out of line with everywhere else? The only people who get a good deal are residents who get the dirt cheap price of $15/month. Is this mainly about price-gouging tourists?
http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/pricing
http://montreal.bixi.com/subscription-and-fees/online
https://www.niceridemn.org/how_it_works/
http://denver.bcycle.com/pricing.aspx
I’ve said this before, but DecoBike has the potential to be THE game changer because it eliminates most of the hassles of having a bike for commuting around town. At $15 a month (for residents), I don’t even think you own your own bike for less (initial purchase price, repairs, and the inevitable, regular loss due to theft when looked outside while you’re doing your errands).
I’m sure this involved subsidies from the City of Miami Beach, but those subsidies are a worthwhile experiment. I hope the public takes to this service and it widely (& rapidly) expands to every dense area around our county.
This is a fee nightmare. u have to put a deposit and if u go past 30 minutes u get a late fee. I am going to flatten all the tires on these bikes, use fake credit cards to steal them and sell them for scrap metal in hialeah.
As a taxpayer of the City of Miami Beach, I would like my share of lost parking revenues to be returned to me by Mr. Reese. Some of these locations are so nonsensical, the people running this must be fools. These bikes will end up in the scrapyard next to the much heralded electric buses.
“Why are the prices so out of line with everywhere else? ”
Our city officials drive much nicer cars.
[...] TransitMiami blog has a great takeout on the service [...]
I have to commend Decobike for reducing their credit card deposits to $99, much more reasonable than the $300-400 (!) they were saying initially. If I move to Miami Beach this year, I’ll be a monthly customer. I have a nice road bike, and I wouldn’t have to risk it being damaged or stolen whenever I go out.
The prices are a bit steep for tourists…but isn’t everything in South Beach this way?
@Want my parking money back: Clearly we need more parking spaces and MORE cars in the beach. Yes to more exhaust emissions and more traffic!!! No to bikes and those god damn hippies!! rofl
[...] Beach will début South Florida’s first bike-share system — Deco Bikes — tomorrow. Transit Miami reports the system will be launched with 500 bikes at 50 stations and later expanded to 1,000 [...]
The point I was making was not cars vs bikes. It was that the city is giving up parking revenues for the benefit of a private entity. Also, in almost every location they installed these kiosks, there is city owned property (grass swales, etc, open sidewalk areas) that they could have been installed without sacrificing revenues. If this is such a wonderful idea, why does it need to be subsidized by the city. If they are occupying parking spaces, let them pay the going rate for use of those parking space.
The money the City makes from Deco Bike goes back to their parking agency, and distributed just like any other parking funds.
Private entities should stand on their own, not be subsidized by the taxpayer.
The fees Deco is paying are far less than the lost parking revenues.
“Want my parking money back” do you know something others don’t? do you have any numbers to back up your claims that the city will lose in this proposition?
Yes. I have a top secret device called a calculator where I am able to figure out how much (using very conservative estimates) parking meters bring in in prime locations throughout the city and multiply it by 365 days a year. This also does not take into account that with the central parking meter system, these spaces are often netting more than $1.50 per hour.
Before you criticize estimates, remember that the revenue projections the promoters are using are just projections. They do not guarantee any returns.
Neglected to mention, that my estimates also do not take into account parking ticket revenues.
One of the guys behind Deco Bike drives around in a huge hulking Range Rover. It’s gonna cost a lot of rentals to fill up that tank buddy!
Look anytime there is a change to “the system” as we’re used to it everybody gets crazy. That’s normal but maybe not sane. Decobike is a good idea and its a good first step. But things will change Decobike will change Miami Beach will change. Maybe the better word to use is “adapt”. Maybe its present incarnation isn’t the “best cure for everybody” but think down the road and not just about the next foot on the path.
Come on. Its a great idea. Let’s give it a chance and nudge it in the right direction to become something that benefits and works for us all. I’m planning to try it out this weekend and if I plan it right I can be on the bikes (different ones of course) for the whole day and not pay any additional charges. You get me? As long as its less than 30 minutes from 1 station to the next? Duh…
“Want my parking money back”, I think you should look at DecoBike for what it is: a way to reduce traffic, decrease the number of cars circling, and increase the number of parking spaces available. Not trying to be a pissy, but I can’t imagine any city-owned parking space or lot ever pays for itself (unless you don’t count the costs of all that super high value land). But, I do agree that in many cases, the DecoBike stations could have be moved a few feet to keep the existing parking spaces and to better meld into the local streetscape–but the crazy codes probably won’t allow it.
I love the fact that this will increase the number of bikes on the road as it will make bikes more common place to the drivers and maybe make us local daily bike users a bit more visable too.
Having said that the biking infrastructure in Miami Beach needs a bit more growing in some key areas to make it easier to get to and from those areas especially for those who are a bit uncomfortable on a bike. I really think the City and Deco Bike need to focus on this and also on the education to the riders. At times it’s already crazy on the sidewalks with the pedestrians and biker traffic and that’s with the current number of bikes. I can imagine it will get a bit more frantic. And without truly making the roads safer and more suitable for all to ride on it will be tough.
Some ideas for thought
-The Large tour buses driving on Ocean needs to be questioned
-Delivery trucks stopping at all hours during the day on Collins
-Small Painted share roads symbol (Look at Long Beach’s painted lanes)
-Education on right of way between bikers, pedestrians on beach walk way
-Sidewalk usage
-Focused attempts to move bike traffic to specific streets for North/South traffic and East/West to common destinations (Grocery Store [Publix 5th, Dade Blvd, 20th, etc], Whole Foods, Lincoln Rd, 41st Bridge, Schools, Lummus Park, Flamingo Park, South Pointe Park, Allison Park, North Shore Open Area, North Shore Park)
Any why do our roads have to be so patched together, can’t we demand a better attempts at patching the streets and when major work or building construction is performed repaving a larger portion of the road.
To Want My Money Back:
The Parking Dept in Miami Beach is a semi-autonomous agency. That means that parking revenues are collected by the Parking Dept and kept by the Parking Dept. Much of this money goes to construct, maintain, and repay the loans for the many parking garages in the city. The city itself is not losing money on DecoBike locations. I for one am happy that less money will be available to construct those massive, ugly parking garages all over town.
Well said M.
Thanks for posting. Great idea.
[...] in infrastructure. DecoBike, a private enterprise which seems to have gotten off to a good start, has not cost the city of Miami Beach a dime and is even sharing revenue with [...]
Just thought I would drop in a little I told you so. Unsurprisingly, this scheme is not working and the taxpayers are being shortchanged.
@Want my parking money back: You are a moron. Go live somewhere else.
[...] http://www.transitmiami.com/bicycle-sharing/deco-bikes-south-florida-bikeshare-debut [...]