Santa Monica is way ahead of Los Angeles in the quest to bring a bike share program to the city—it'll launch a pilot program for their project, to be operated by a firm called Cyclehop and called Breeze, within a few weeks. A full roll-out is set to follow before the year's end. The city is still working out locations for the full program, which will have 500 bikes at 75 stations, but the Santa Monica City Council is set to discuss the fare structure for the bike share this week. Santa Monica Next says that SaMo's trying to set up the fares so that the program can operate with "little to no" city subsidies.
Whereas some other bikes shares (like the one in New York) give bike share "members" unlimited short rides, Breeze members would only be allowed a certain number of free minutes on a bike each day. A basic monthly pass (proposed to cost $20) would allow the pass holder 30 minutes a day on a system bike. For $25 a month, members would get an "extended" pass good for 60 minutes a day. There'd also be something called a "Transit Combo" pass which kind of seems like the way to go for monthly passes, at just $15 for 60 minutes a day on a Breeze bike.
Annual passes would be either basic (30 minutes/daily for free) or extended (60 minutes/daily for free), and would cost $119 and $149, respectively. There would be discounts on all passes for Santa Monica residents and for members of a Transportation Management Agency, "which will be formed in order to coordinate strategies to encourage people to commute by means other than single-occupancy vehicles." Santa Monica College students would be eligible for discounted, six-month student passes ($47).
Anyone who wanted to just hop on a bike without membership (a "casual user") would pay $6 an hour for ride time, according to the proposed rates.
Where users park their bike once they're done using it will also affect the price of a ride. Santa Monica's bikes will be "smart bikes," meaning that all the technology will be built into the vehicle itself, enabling riders to lock the Breeze bikes anywhere, instead of requiring that the bikes be returned to the docking hubs. Leaving a bike at a non-hub area would be an additional $2 charge, but a user who picked a bike up at a non-hub location and returned it to the hub gets a $1 credit. (Any spot within 100 feet of a hub is considered "in hub," according to the proposed pricing chart.) Also, anyone who leaves the bike outside of Santa Monica when they're finished would be charged an additional $20. The full suggested fare chart appears below.
· What Will Santa Monica's New Bike Share System Cost to Use? [SMN]
· SaMo Doesn't Want to Wait on Metro For Bike Share Program [Curbed LA]
· Mapping the Possible Spots For SaMo's Bike Sharing Stations [Curbed LA]
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