Bay Wheels Expands Significantly in the Bay Area
Bay Wheels is expanding in San Francisco. Here’s what you need to know.
What is Bay Wheels
Have you ever tried those bikes you can check out at stations? They’re called Bay Wheels and their history is a fascinating look at a public / private partnership to mixed effect. For much of their history, expansions have been announced and then rescinded, but at last we may see a big jump in new Bay Wheels stations.
Owned and managed by Lyft under an exclusive partnership with Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Bay Wheels is meant to fill the “last mile” gap. While public transportation gets you most places in SF and the broader Bay Area, planning a route that gets you somewhere quickly can be difficult.
Bike Share Costs
A bike share is a creative way to give back a bit of freedom and independence to transit riders, which is critical. Mayor Daniel Lurie’s budget cuts mean that public transit is more crowded, routes are reduced or even eliminated, and everything costs more. Enter bike share.
But Bay Wheels is, unfortunately, not free. Free bike share programs started in the 1960s, with one prominent example being a grassroots effort to distribute white bicycles throughout Amsterdam for free use. Here in San Francisco, a single ride currently costs 3.99 plus additional fees after the first thirty minutes. There are discounts for a monthly pass. In large part, the reason Lyft operates Bay Wheels is because they paid for the infrastructure.
The Expansion
Bay Wheels has expanded significantly, and more is on the way. They recently added 19 new docks in Oakland. Too bad biking infrastructure isn’t keeping up. Imagine if you could hop on a bike and go visit your friends in the East Bay! Maybe in ten years… Bay Wheels is also expanding to Daly City soon. And they’re adding 11 new stations in Berkeley this August.
But the real news is that they’re expanding significantly throughout SF. Check out the maps on this document to see where. And notice that several new stations are at or adjacent to parks, which are city property. They recently got permission to do that just before the Board of Supervisors went on their summer recess.
Why Does Bay Wheels Have a Monopoly?
Gone are the days when the City sought out other e-bike programs; a few years ago Lyft sued the shit out of SF because they were granted exclusivity by the MTC. Now with the monopoly they have, Lyft can set the Bay Wheels price to be anything they want because there’s no competitor who could undercut them. They did build the infrastructure, after all… And it looks like their expansion is going to further saturate the Bay Area.
On the one hand, it’s good to have relatively cheap bike share options. And it’s good to build out infrastructure for it, too. But on the other hand, the privatization of these things means we’re always going to be in a pickle. It’s the railroad expansion all over again. Perhaps with time some future journalist (better than I) will uncover the financials, because it’s long been thought that something doesn’t add up with the story. Until then, Bay Wheels is going to be everywhere.
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