Metro is prepping to finally debut a bike share program in Los Angeles, beginning in Downtown LA around mid-2016, and they get down to the brass tacks of pricing in a new Metro staff report. The suggested pricing structure is only part of that conversation, though; the real interesting stuff involves how people will pay for their time on the bikes. According to Streetsblog LA, bike share users who've signed up for monthly or yearly passes to the system will get a special, "uniquely branded" TAP card—not the same TAP card that can be used to buy a ride on the Metro.
That card, issued by bike share operators Bicycle Transit Systems, won't have preloaded value or passes, so it won't be able to do anything but unlock bike share bikes. But, by the end of 2016, the plan is for all TAP cards to work for accessing bikes at docking stations. Bike riders still won't be able to use any stored value on their TAP cards to pay for a bike ride, though they will be able to use their TAP card numbers to load a bike share pass onto their cards; transit and bike ride accounts will stay separate. These aren't the only "interoperability" issues being discussed, and Metro's Board of Directors will take all of it up again in spring 2016.
The proposed pricing, seen above, includes the Flex Pass, which amounts to "one year of half-price rides," but doesn't include an annual pass, though Streetsblog notes a rider could just keep renewing their monthly pass for a total of $240 a year. There also aren't any daily or weekly passes available, like the ones Metro has for buses and trains. The limited options presented in this preliminary plan are framed as a way "to improve customer understanding and make signing up easy." The TAP card plan and pricing proposals go to Metro's Planning and Programming Committee later this month before going before the whole board in December.
· A Peek Into Metro Bike-Share's Proposed Fare Structure [SBLA]
· Los Angeles Bike Share Program a Go to Launch by Mid-2016 [Curbed LA]