Finally. Metro is getting out of the bike rental biz in Pasadena. A rant.

Setting up bike rental stations around Pasadena was a silly idea in the first place and as of Thursday, August 16th, the bikes and their stations are being removed. And, so far, I have not seen any of those electric scooters on the streets here in Pasadena to take the place of bikes.

UPDATES: 1) It turns out Pasadena was paying Metro $100,000 PER MONTH for the bike rental stations and bikes.

2) As of August 24th, 2018, The City of Pasadena is developing regulations for electric scooters and

3) I saw three guys on electric scooters over by the Westlake Apartments, that huge rental complex at Green and Pasadena St.

Metro bikes at Del Mar rental apartments — Metro bikes lined up across from the Del Mar station. I’m willing to bet that most of the passengers who get off at Del Mar catch an elevator home–not a Metro bike. A huge apartment complex surrounds this Metro station. You can see more of the apartments in the photo at the top of the page.

From the beginning when Metro installed bikes in downtown L.A. and I saw them at a CicLAvia bicycling event, I had questions. The biggest was why on earth was Metro wasting public funds setting up a bike rental business when there were many private, local bike companies who could do it easily.

Gold Line Metro train at Fillmore station — In the back is a Metro Gold Line train, partially obscured by trees, speeding out of the Fillmore station. The bikes are lined up neatly in this very attractive plaza by the station. Many people who disembark at this station go to nearby Medical Offices and I’m not sure biking is on their minds.

Metro is supposed to built tracks and trains — not worry about getting their passengers through the last mile or last block home.

two bike stations at Fillmore gold line — **Before Metro installed the bike racks at the Fillmore Gold Line station, they had two places to lock up bikes instead of the dozen or so bikes now at this location.**

I guess the blessing in all this is that the Metro bikes, at least in Pasadena, have failed. Maybe that’s why private bike businesses didn’t set up rental stations before. It wasn’t a viable business. The only successful bike rental businesses I know about are at the beach. Tourists love them.

Metro bike station by Pasadena City Library — These bikes adjacent to the Pasadena Central Library are the closest ones to the Memorial Park Metro station which, itself, is the closest Metro station to Old Town Pasadena. Why no bikes at Memorial Park? (Not that it makes any difference now.)

As long as I am on the topic of Metro financial expenditures–bureaucrats spending taxpayers’ money–I like to know why Metro Link (the Inter-urban train that runs on train tracks from downtown L.A. to San Bernardino) is dueling with Metro Rail about establishing a Metro Gold Line station in Claremont, a city that Metro Link already serves. It’s a crazy duplication of effort!