Committee Hearing, April 30, 2008

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILITIES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 30, 2008 1:55 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY, CHAIR COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO RESOLUTION 080055 - Resolution authorizing City Council's Committees on the Environment and on Transportation and Public Utilities to hold joint public hearings to investigate the steps the City of Philadelphia and its various Departments are currently taking and are planning to take to investigate the creation of a Public Use Bicycle Program as an additional method of urban transportation... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good afternoon. Shortly is now. This is a Joint Committee on the Environment and Transportation to hear testimony on Resolution No. 080055, which is a resolution authorizing City Council's Committee on the Environment and on Transportation and Public Utilities to hold joint public hearings to investigate the steps the City of Philadelphia and its various Departments are currently taking and are planning to take to investigate the creation of a Public Use Bicycle Program as an additional method of urban transportation to enhance the personal mobility of Philadelphia residents and workers. We have four panels today, and the first panel is representing the Administration, which is Dr. Schwarz and Rina Cutler, who are not here. We'll move on to Panel 2. In the event that they come in, we'll be able to schedule them. 3 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 The second panel is Clayton Lane, Tanya Seaman, PhillyCarShare; Alex Doty, Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia; State Representative Josephs; and Michael McGettigan. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Blondell Reynolds Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I simply want to say thank you to everyone who is here this afternoon as this Committee continues to work towards growing a more sustainable city and, where opportunities permit, a green economy. We are currently not one of 60 cities around the world that have a Public Use Bicycle Program, but the expectation is once we've heard from you, the experts, we will look on this end to submit recommendations as to how our city can move towards that goal. 4 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 So thank you again for your anticipated testimony. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm Babette Josephs. I'm the State Representative from the 182nd, where we are all sitting and where you, ladies and gentlemen, come to work every day. So thank you for having me. I appreciate it, Chairman Kenney and lady and gentlemen. I'm here because I am here today to tell you of my support for developing a bike-sharing -- does somebody want to come up?

I was just getting Rina Cutler's attention to bring her up. You can proceed. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: -- 5 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 (continued) a bike-sharing program in the City. Even though you know and you'll hear today many of the positive aspects of a Public Use Bike Program, I want to talk to you about two particular issues that concern me. One is improving the safety for bicycle riders and pedestrian and the other is improving air quality and overall health for our citizens. A lot of my constituents, particularly retired people, are really concerned about their safety on the sidewalks vis-a-vis bike riders, and I tell them all the time that this is a real paradox, that counter-intuitively I believe that the more bicycle riders we have and the more bicycles we have, the safer our sidewalks will become, and that's because at the present level of bike riding, it's just not a serious enough problem to rise to the level of a consistent and aggressive police enforcement program, but if we had 10 or 20 or 30 times as many bicyclists out in 6 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 the City, the police would have to take a more aggressive approach to enforcing the problem against bicycle riders on the sidewalks. But beyond that, I also believe that it would not be very long that you, ladies and gentlemen, and the city planners would be looking to set aside bike lanes and perhaps even downtown, where it's so congested, setting aside streets that would be reserved only for people riding bicycles. If we had 40,000 people on the street riding bicycles, we certainly would have to be thinking of planning in that fashion, and I think that we would then see people riding their bikes in the streets because they wouldn't be concerned about their own safety. According to the Bicycle Coalition, who you will hear from very soon, of Greater Philadelphia, when we double the number of bicycles on the street, the crash risk for any one bike 7 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 falls by 33 percent. And that makes some sense, too, because motorists learn that they have to avoid people on bikes, and the police are aware and it becomes a much more accepted mode of transportation. And a final word on safety, the use of bicycle headlights and helmets during the day or the night, which would be required and very strongly encouraged by any public-use bike program, would certainly improve the safety of both pedestrians and the riders. As for improved air quality, I don't have to tell you. You come downtown every day. Even where any place in the City, the air quality leaves a lot to be desired. Our narrow streets are full of noxious fumes. A lot of this has to do, of course, with the cars, and I believe actually that the public-use car share that we have in the City and which I have encouraged has really kept the number of cars pretty -- I don't feel in 8 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Center City -- it's strange, even though we've had something like maybe 10,000 more people move in over the last three to seven years, I suppose, I don't feel that we have so many more cars than we had before they moved in, and I attribute that to PhillyCarShare and car-sharing programs. But we still have a problem with air pollution, and, of course, as we encourage people to ride bikes instead of driving their cars, we will see a decrease, I believe, in both adult and juvenile asthma and other very serious respiratory ailments that are becoming an epidemic in the City. We also all know we have an obesity epidemic. If you're riding a bike, you're spending a lot more calories than if you're sitting in a car. I really do believe that if we could take from people some of the problems and fears about bike ownership, the initial investment, worrying about whether it's 9 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES.

080055 going to be stolen, where are you going to put it, how are you going to keep it out of the rain, what's going to happen when you need to fix it, if we could take all of that away from people and give them the opportunity for a public-use bike, that more and more people -- I would be encouraged to ride a bike and I think that most of my constituents, many of my constituents, would also. The exercise would be excellent for them. So according to, again, the Bicycle Coalition, biking in Philadelphia increased percent between 2005 and 16 2006. That's a real message that 17 Philadelphians want to use bicycles, they 18 want to be bike riders. They understand 19 better than we do perhaps all of the 20 benefits, and so I am here to encourage 21 very much. 22 I am willing to -- my office, I 23 have some resources. I want to work with 24 City Council. I want to work with 25 whoever is putting this bike-share 10 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 program together. I want to be a full participant, as cooperative as I can. I am here not only to testify but to say to you please call on me if I can help. I want to. I think this is a wonderful program to transform our city. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your testimony. By the way, I know enforcement is an issue, but we do have an ordinance 13 on the books which prohibits cycling on the sidewalk. The issue of enforcement, whether the police have the time to do it is one issue, and perhaps even an agency like the Parking Authority may be more appropriate, especially in downtown where their presence is a lot heavier than sometimes the police are. But we do appreciate your testimony and coming in. I'd like to ask Dr. Schwarz, since I just saw him come in, if he could come to the table. And, Rina, could you please 11 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 identify yourself for the record and proceed. State Representative, do you have a time issue? REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: I'm sorry?

Do you have a time issue, schedule? REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: No. 11

Do you want to hang around? Are there any questions for -- REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: Well, would you like other people to come forward and I'll --

If you got to get out of here, I want to know if anybody had any questions for you. Councilman Rizzo.

I don't know whether I'm asking the question of the appropriate person or not. One of the concerns I have about riding bicycles is the fact that motorcycles recently, the 12 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Governor has voided or done away with the head protection, rescinded -- thanks, Jack -- rescinded the head protection. Is there a law or anything on the books that require bicyclists to wear head protection? And one of the concerns that I have is when I see parents riding bicycles with infants in the back of the bicycle. In the event that that bicycle had an accident and the baby on the back of the bike -- I mean, it just scares me sometimes when I see that scenario, a mom with an infant on the back of a bicycle. But the question is the head protection. Motorcycles, you don't need -- I guess there's some requirement somewhere at some age, but what's the requirement on head protection on a bike? REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: For people on bikes, folks under 12 are required, and I would assume that's the baby on the back, as well as a child who could ride a bike him or herself. But, again, I think if we have more bikes, 13 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 this problem will take care of itself better, because there will be -- I mean, what Councilmember Kenney said, I know to be the case. There is an ordinance. I sort of didn't want to get into criticizing the police for not enforcing it, because the police are busy with really serious, terrible crimes, and maybe the Parking Authority idea is a good idea. I haven't thought about that.

We also as part of that ordinance, it's part of the sidewalk behavior ordinance, it didn't seem to stop the panhandling either. So there's issues of enforcement in that entire bill. I had an incident today on Walnut Street, which was a lovely -- a gentleman got arrested for threatening to shoot me if I didn't give him money. But he didn't. So thank you. I'm sorry. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: Well, I just think these problems will be taken care of, even the baby on the back -- I mean, I see babies on the back of their 14 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 mothers, not on a bike, and their mothers not -- this doesn't happen in Philadelphia, of course, but their mothers are climbing mountains or hiking or something, and it makes me very nervous. I mean, there's certain place where government really probably can't go. But I do believe that if we have 40,000 bikers regular on the street, that some number of them will be parents with babies, and that will be regularized.

Well, again, not to belabor this, I think it's been very -- I'm disappointed about the head protection rule for motorcyclists. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: Me, too. I didn't vote for it.

I don't know what regulations there are for bicycles, if any. And, again, that scenario that I described, bicyclist, infant on the back, I close my eyes sometimes when I'm on Kelly Drive and I see that scenario that I just described. 15 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Is there a head protection requirement for a bicycle?

Please identify yourself for the record.

Alex Doty, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. The requirement is that if you're age or under, you're required 10 to have a helmet. That is the only 11 helmet requirement. 12

Is that a state law?

That's a state law.

So the adult does not require head protection, but the infant that would be the passenger would?

Yeah. To tell you the truth, I would have to get back to you on the details about whether the helmet is required for, say, a infant in a trailer or an infant in a bike seat. Certainly if the child is a rider, then it's required, but that's a nuance of the law that I actually don't know the answer 16 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 to. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: Nor do I.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My infant does, I can tell you that much.

Any other questions for the Representative? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you very much and congratulations on your renomination. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHS: Thank you.

Ms. Cutler, could you please identify yourself? And, Doctor, come up. DEPUTY

For the record, Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities.

I'm sorry. Please proceed. Ignore us. DEPUTY

Never. 17 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Thank you for inviting me to testify today on the Public Use Bicycle Program. The Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities is supportive of increasing the use of cycling within the City. A cycling-friendly city is consistent with the City's sustainability initiative and aligns well with the Mayor's six results. Cycling improves health through physical activity, improves air quality through reduced emissions, provides mobility without creating vehicular congestion, reduces the need to dedicate City space to parking, reduces the consumption of energy, and contributes to national energy independence goals. The City is taking steps to continue its support for non-motorized modes. This includes the hiring of the City's first Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator effective July 1, 2008. In addition, the City Planning Commission is about to embark on the development of a Pedestrian and Bicycle 18 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Plan for the City, which will identify policies and projects to continue to enhance accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians. That said, my office is supportive of a Public Use Bicycle Program in concept. However, before we can make a firm decision to support or dedicate significant resources to such a system, we do need additional information on how the system will be structured, how it will operate and what resource commitment will be needed from the City of Philadelphia. Based on information that has been presented to us to date, the primary business model that is being discussed is one that includes a bike-sharing program within the street furniture contract. Under this model, the provider of the street furniture would include a bike-sharing proposal as part of that bid. Under most of the types of agreements, all monies from the 19 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 bike-sharing system go to the concessionaire. This is true in Lyon, France; Vienna, Austria; and Rennes, France. In Paris, revenue generated from the system goes to the city, minus a processing fee of percent. 8 In a second, a municipally 9 owned model, the entire system is owned 10 and operated by the city, and this is 11 true in Copenhagen, or leased by the city 12 at an approximate cost of $2,000 to $2,500 per bike per year. That is the model in Barcelona, Spain. A third potential model is a system that is owned and operated by a non-profit. This model has yet to be used on a citywide basis anywhere, but would be worth exploring. This type of model would be similar to how PhillyCarShare is operated. All business models require a financial commitment on the part of the City. Public space may be needed for the bicycle docking stations. In many areas 20 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 of the City, these stations would be too large for placement on City sidewalks. One possibility is that a limited number of on-street automobile parking spaces could be used for the bicycle stations. We are currently considering a pilot installation of bicycle racks in existing on-street parking spaces in several heavily bike-trafficked locations throughout the City. These locations have not yet been finalized. It is our understanding that the space requirements for the docking stations would be of comparable size. With regards to an appropriate scale, several within the cycling community have stated that they would prefer to see an implementation with thousands of bikes and hundreds of docking stations. , we believe a demonstration or a pilot program would be a more prudent way to proceed. Recently, 21 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Washington, DC launched a demonstration program called SmartBike DC. com, which consists of 120 SmartBikes and ten docking stations. We will monitor this pilot to identify lessons learned and to determine whether this pilot has potential applicability in Philadelphia.

As of now, there does not appear to be a clear direction on the target market for this system. Is it for commuters, residents, employees, tourists? How would user fees and security deposits be structured and managed? Understanding whether this program would be for casual users or a local subscription base would and should influence how the program is structured and operated. To ensure that the program would be done well, we need to better articulate the need that we are attempting to meet. One issue that we are currently 22 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 struggling with is that many of the advocates for this program believe that the best business model is to incorporate the program into a street furniture contract. Our concern is that under the street furniture model, the size, scale and structure of the bike-sharing program ultimately will hinge on the City exchanging advertising space for these goods or services. There is no free lunch here. The more the City demands in the street furniture contract, the more advertising space we will need to permit. This is a balancing act, and we are at the moment unsure of how much of an appetite the public may have for additional street advertising or what street furniture amenities might have to be reduced or eliminated. We are considering an advertisement which will allow us to gather some additional information from potential vendors and to consider what type of proposal might work in the City. 23 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 In the next few months it is our intention to have the new Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator work with the cycling community to assist in helping to develop a business plan, including objectives, markets, operating structure, costs and revenues. Thank you for your attention. I will be happy to answer or obtain answers to any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. Dr. Schwarz.

Good afternoon, Chairman Kenney, Chairman Jones, members of the Committees. I am Donald Schwarz, Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity, and I'm here today as Health Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia. Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony today on Resolution 080055 on the issue of creating a Public Use Bicycle Program within City government. Within the Department of Public 24 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Health we feel strongly that public-use bicycle programs have the potential to improve public health. Public health approaches to preventing chronic conditions, such as childhood obesity and cardiovascular disease, focus to a great degree on increasing personal physical activity and incorporating it into our daily routines in the environments we use most: schools, parks, recreation centers, workplaces and neighborhoods. Increasingly, the public health researchers are recognizing the crucial role that community design, land use and transportation systems have on physical activity levels. Communities with high street connectivity and mixed land use are best able to reduce reliance on automobiles and encourage travel by walking and biking. Wener and Evans reported in the journal Environment and Behavior that train commuters took an average of 30 percent more walking steps per day, walked for significantly more 25 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 periods of ten minutes or greater, and were more likely to walk 10,000 steps per day than automobile commuters. The evidence is clear that the transportation mode can significantly affect the amount of physical activity commuters accumulate during the course of a typical weekday, even without planned or coordinated exercise programs. Bicycle riding is high on the physical activity list. Bike-sharing programs have been implemented in cities around the world, as documented by my colleague, my esteemed colleague, if I may, providing widespread opportunity to encourage physical activity through bike riding. To be successful, however, bike-sharing programs must be implemented in ways that minimize the risk of injury and promote the public safety. They must serve an appropriate range of communities and districts and have the support of local government, building managers, employers, the driving public, as well as 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 the bicycling public. The Department's Division of Chronic Disease Prevention currently engages with other City agencies and community stakeholders to help ensure that any efforts to improve Philadelphia's bikability take into account critical public health and safety issues. We have provided input to the City Planning Commission's Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan RFP. The plan would help prioritize improvements to strengthen bicycle and pedestrian networks and increase the number of people walking and bicycling. Part of that plan includes the formation of a Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Task Force, which will include the Department of Public Health. The contractor selected to develop the plan will solicit the views of a number of stakeholders, including two convened by the Department of Public Health, the Healthy Environment Collaborative and the 27 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance. The objective of the Healthy Environment Collaborative is to develop cross-sectoral collaboration to change policies, practices and attitudes that affect opportunities to improve health status and engage in physical activity. Partners on the Collaborative include representatives from public health, transportation, urban planning, architecture, law enforcement, parks, recreation, academia and other government entities. The Collaborative provides a mechanism and structure to formally merge activities that link planning and public health.

In the past, the Healthy Environment Collaborative convened a Bicycle Issues Task Force, which identified a number of key issues that would make Philadelphia more bicycle friendly. K. Kellogg Foundation's Food and Fitness Initiative, the Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness 28 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Alliance is developing a community action plan to improve access to locally grown, affordable fruits and vegetables, and safe places for physical activity and play. The Living Activity subcommittee of that alliance is currently developing a vision for how to facilitate active living through community design, land use and active transportation. After assessing various policies and systems change options to bring this vision to a reality, the Alliance will incorporate agreed-upon options in the Community Action Plan. So far, discussions among participants have included issues dealing with bicycling in the City generally, as well as bike-sharing programs specifically. The Community Action Plan is scheduled to be completed in November of this year and there is the potential for the Kellogg Foundation to fund its implementation. From a public health perspective, the Department supports the 29 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 creation of a Public Use Bicycle Program in Philadelphia. I would like to state also that key Chronic Disease Prevention staff have been trained in Health Impact Assessment, a set of methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to the potential effect it might have on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within the population. This is a resource that can be brought to bear in assessing the health impact of modifications in the built environment that may be necessary to improve our bikability. Thank you for allowing me to present testimony. I will now join my colleague in answering your questions.

Thank you. Councilman Kenney had a prior engagement and asked that I chair in his stead, and I have been given instruction that we have a hefty agenda and a 3 o'clock meeting and hearing on gambling. 30 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 So does anyone have any questions, comments? Councilwoman.

Good afternoon. I do want to thank the Administration for the important questions you've raised as to how we proceed down this road and coming up with a program that is, at the end of the day, workable. We want to do something that is reasonable. I am curious to know at this hour where are we with the RFP process, the one that you referenced in your testimony. At what stage are we with that?

The Commission's RFP -- DEPUTY

Are you talking about the Planning Commission's RFP?

Yes, yes, yes.

If I could 31 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 also join my colleague in asking on that RFP, have we considered the fact that we have an RFP for bus shelters coming up and -- go ahead. DEPUTY

Yes. Those are two very separate issues. There is an RFP, I believe, that has had respondents in a selection -- a consultant has been selected for the bicycle pedestrian study. That's a very different RFP than I believe you're referencing, Councilman, relative to the street furniture issue, which is potentially everything from public toilets to the issue of newsstands, the issue of --

Advertising. DEPUTY

-- advertising, all of that. So those are separate.

I'm very familiar with the fact that they are separate. I'm questioning whether they 32 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 should be, in considering possibilities by way of bike locations, to use the information gained in one study that might be beneficial to people trying to design where bus shelters, bike shelters, bike racks should go. DEPUTY

Where they should go is probably a useful connection. I think part of the problem is, we do not know enough about a potential business model that works for a bike-share program, and I think in the interim, we probably -- we are currently looking at locations for taking out several parking spaces and putting a bike station in, not bike sharing but where folks can in fact park their bikes. It may be that that is part of -- if that is successful, that may be part of the model for bike sharing. I think the real question -- two questions for bike sharing are, what is a workable model financially and operationally, and the second is, what is 33 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 the public appetite for advertising, which is how one pays for that. And I think those are the two questions we don't have enough information on yet.

Well, we welcome slow walking this process so that we get it right, and I'm encouraged to hear about the working group. The one community I did not hear referenced that we may want to consider is the public school students and the Archdiocese for young people who want to use biking as a mode of transportation, especially with obesity being the crisis that it is. So I would recommend and strongly urge you to factor in that community as well. DEPUTY

It's a great suggestion. In fact, I will try to get some data from the School District relative to how many of their students actually bike to school every day.

Deputy Mayor, also I understand that our relationship with SEPTA and the leased 34 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 space in our Public Property's concourses and stations is about to expire and that that thought process of where racks are and what can be done in public space might be considered there as well. So we have bus shelters, we have a relationship with SEPTA and the stations, all of which coming of age and the leases expiring. Some thought might be given to all of that and doing it in a uniform way that considers all of these options. DEPUTY

Yes. I am not yet sure that I am supportive of a bike-sharing model tied in to the street furniture program. It may be -- that is certainly one model. It may be that there are other models which actually might work better. I also don't want to lose the opportunity to try to deal with the issue of bike racks in our current Parking Authority-owned garages, bike racks as it relates to SEPTA, because part of the benefit of a bike-sharing program is 35 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 really the connection between folks leaving their house, biking to a train station, getting on SEPTA to get into the City. So it is part of a commute that goes from home to work or work to play. So the continuum should not be lost. So I think we need to really work harder currently on just getting bike stations in place in as many facilities as we can, somewhat a different issue than the bike sharing.

Thank you again very, very much for your important testimony.

Any other questions from the Committees? (No response.)

Thank you. I'm going to bring up our next panel, which is Clayton Lane and PhillyCarShare and Ms. Seaman. And I want to recognize Councilmembers that have joined us. Councilman Rizzo, who has also left us. 36 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055

Right here.

Councilman O'Neill, who is still with us. The panel on the Bike Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Michael McGettigan. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Welcome and please submit your testimony. State your name for the record, please.

My name is Alex Doty. I'm the Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. We are very excited about the concept of bike sharing. We had, I think, a record crowd for a Bicycle Coalition event where we had 400 people show up to a forum on bike sharing in the snow this past February. And we are also -- I think that the Deputy Mayor was talking about trying to explore various different options that we have for 37 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 funding this, both within the street furniture and perhaps also trying to figure out a new way. This is a concept that is relatively new for the United States and there may be some ways that we can find to put together that have not been done in sort of this European style, but we certainly want to build on that experience. And I just look to some of the experience in Paris, France. They started their program eight months ago and they have already seen a tripling in the number of people who are bicycling in the City of Paris. And I will tell you right now that Paris is not known as particularly a bicycle-friendly city, certainly not within Europe. And so there is, I think, a great cycle, a great synergy that bike sharing can bring where more bicyclists lead to better facilities for bicyclists, and then better facilities lead to more bicyclists. But even more than that, the more people we 38 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 can get to ride, the more people will ride. And so I think that we heard Babette Josephs giving the testimony that if we double the number of people who bicycle on any given street, we reduce the crash risk for each person by a third. And so above all else, what we want to be doing is encouraging more people to bike, and if we get the streets to be safer, we're going to get people to come off of the sidewalks. And I think the issue is also how well people are protected. I wish the Dutch would wear their helmets, but they also do not have significant injuries from bicycles because they don't have the crashes that we have, because bicycles are accorded a priority on the streets of Holland. I think that we've already -- the benefits of bike sharing are the benefits of bicycling, and, that is, that we reduce congestion, we reduce our 39 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 carbon footprint, we increase the health of our citizens and reduce healthcare costs, reduce rates of obesity, and we also are going to make transportation cheaper for Philadelphians. When people bicycle, they're saving money, and when they're saving money by not paying for gas, that's money that they're going to spend locally. That's not money that's going to a multi-national corporation. So I think bike sharing presents the best opportunity that I've seen in my time with the Bicycle Coalition for us to significantly increase the number of people who are biking in the City. I'm happy to take any questions. And I guess Clayton will talk next about what other models we might explore for bike sharing.

Thank you. State your name for the record, please.

My name is Clayton 40 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Lane. I am the Co-Founder and Deputy Executive Director of PhillyCarShare, the local non-profit car-sharing organization. Thank you for the opportunity today. Councilman DiCicco at PhillyCarShare's launch in 2002 said that Philadelphia is the city that loves you back, and now it will even share a car with you. And since that time, he has championed car sharing and many people on City Council have championed car sharing, so that we've been able to serve neighborhoods that we otherwise wouldn't be able to without your support. And due to our collective efforts, we've made some enormous impacts. Today, six years later, our members report owning 20,000 fewer cars on the streets of Philadelphia, and their savings alone is pumping $90 million a year back into our local economy. That's a city that loves you back. That's the power of sharing. With bicycling and bike 41 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 sharing, we have the opportunity to take this to a whole new level, and so we're here today basically to ask you once more for your support in championing this new concept of sharing bicycles, which we collectively all think is potentially even more exciting than everything that car sharing has done in our city. I just want to share with you three thoughts today. I think that the successes of car sharing are directly transferable to bike sharing. Second, as we've heard already, bike sharing yields some enormous societal impacts that we're all very interested in. And, third, Philadelphia is an excellent opportunity for public-use bicycles. We have a market and local resources here like no 20 other city to do it right, to really maximize those societal benefits. I just want to cover those three ideas. First, with regard to car sharing and its transferability. Car sharing in Philadelphia has proven that 42 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 people will change their lives. They really will do this. Philadelphia was not known as a car-sharing city before we started this here, but now we have the largest regional car-sharing organization in the world. And we've achieved this by providing something very convenient and affordable, something that works for people on a personal level. So we're not telling people get rid of your cars, drive less, even though that's what we want. We're just providing people a better option, a better way of getting around. They're choosing on their own to change their lives, and they do. Not only are they getting rid of their cars, but they're driving 42 percent fewer miles, because they're cashing in on the opportunity to save money by driving less, as an example. They're also saving about two million gallons of gasoline so far. And over 45,000 Philadelphians have signed up for PhillyCarShare, including 20 percent 43 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 of Center City residents. So it's really a massive impact here. These benefits that we've accrued to Philadelphia, again, not by telling people they shouldn't drive but by providing a better alternative, and this is, again, where bike sharing comes in and can make a huge impact, because bike sharing is so convenient, it's so affordable. It's virtually free to use the system on a per-use basis. It provides for one-way trips. There's a reserved parking space waiting for you, and you bicycle virtually all over the City. It's convenient and affordable, so much that the masses will use it. Reservations aren't required. The benefits of the zero emission travel mode are profound and unmistakable, as we've already heard. So I won't go through them again, but I do want to focus on one really important one I think, and that's economic equity. The poorest fifth of Americans 44 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 spend 38 percent of their income on owning and operating automobiles, and a lot of that poorest fifth lives right here in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, a full 37 percent of Philadelphians don't have access to a car, and that's usually not by choice. So bike sharing provides a very interesting opportunity to address these economic equity issues. And I am sure that you know where I'm coming from here, so I don't have to go through all the details. But bicycling can provide a very affordable, ubiquitous mobility mode, both from where you live and as an extension of public transit, as Rina Cutler was mentioning earlier. The third point I wanted to make was that Philadelphia is really a very excellent market for public-use bicycling. Most of our city is flat. We have mixed land uses, with a high density of destinations that are within an easy one- to three-mile bike ride. We have the nation's second largest student 45 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 population. We have an excellent extensive public transit system, 250 miles of bike lanes, more than most cities in North America. We have slow auto traffic, which is actually good for bicycling. And in addition, we have resources to make it happen here. It just happens that the world headquarters of Fuji Bikes is right here in Northeast Philadelphia. We have major institutions like universities and healthcare providers, who potentially could support facilities for bike stations or even funding. And PhillyCarShare is right here. I believe that PhillyCarShare could offer the City and the eventual bike-sharing system many resources, including intellectual capital, the way to do it, technology, excess revenues to fund the system, brand equity that's really loved in the City, community relationships and our 50,000 members by the end of 2008. I envision a citywide, 46 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 financially self-sustaining system with minimal cost to the City that would be completely interoperable with transit, taxis and PhillyCarShare. In fact, it would be ideal if on day one the bike-sharing system could have 50,000 members; namely, those people who already have keys to our cars throughout the City. I also envision a system working collaboratively with local bike shops to ensure that their business thrives by leveraging the bike-sharing system as their own marketing tool and as a stepping stone toward personal bike ownership, as Alex has highlighted has happened in France. S. So just to conclude, as Alex mentioned, Paris was not known as a bike city before bike sharing, nor was Philadelphia known as a car-sharing city, 47 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 but yet it's all happened in these two cities, with the largest systems of each kind in those cities. Today, six years after we've started, we're looking for Council's support again, and this time we're asking you to support the exploration of this further. I would love it if Council would champion a study, a study that would measure market demand, establish the locations and numbers of bicycles that would be needed throughout the City and evaluate the various methods of implementation, basically answer those unknowns that Rina Cutler earlier was saying. We need to know more about these things. And hopefully a year or year and a half from now, one of you will be speaking to the media on the first day of the bike-sharing system's opening saying, again, that Philadelphia is the city that loves you back, and now it will even share a bicycle with you. Thank you. 48 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. )

Thank you very much. State your name for the record, please. MR. McGETTIGAN: Yes. My name is Michael McGettigan. I have twice been a Board member of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. I've been a Philadelphian for 53 years, a cyclist for 44 years. My son, who attends a Philadelphia public school, is 12 years old. More numbers, I own Trophy Bikes University City and the Trophy Bike Garage in Northern Liberties, and our home at 27th and South cost 62,000 ten years ago and it's now worth four times that, thanks to the Schuylkill River Bike Trail. I know that later you're going to hear a lot of numbers from the big bike/billboard companies, so I thought I'd bring up a few of them. They talk about miles ridden, bikes out there, and 49 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 so-and-so. So I started a few numbers and also a few names. I'll read them fast. Bicycle Therapy, Bike Addicts, Bike Line, Bilenky Cycle Works, Bustleton Bikes, Elite Bicycles, Doctor Cycles, Frankenstein Bike Works, Liberty Bell Cycles, Jay's Pedal Power, The Bike Stable, Human Zoom, Philadelphia Bicycles, Trophy Bikes University City, Trophy Bike Garage, Mike's Bikes, Breakaway Bikes, Via Bicycle, Bicycle Revolutions, Bell's Bikes, Wolff Cycle, Wissahicken Cyclery, Sun's Bicycles and Neighborhood Bike Works, which I helped co-found. That's green transport 17 specialists all over Philadelphia. A 18 third of those have opened just in the 19 past decade. 20 Trophy is firmly in the middle 21 of that pack. We sold more than 300 22 bikes last year at each store. We employ six full-time staff and two or three part-time staff. Let's say that all those 50 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 stores, all of them, did about what we did, although many of them far outsell us. That's about 6,000 bicycles. Then add your big box stores -- we had to do that -- Wal-Mart, Target, Sports Authority, Sears, and the BSOs they sell. That's in the bike trade bike-shaped objects, heavy, junky, work for a little while, not fun to ride, but for Philadelphia's poorest citizens, particularly new immigrants, the restaurant renaissance in Philadelphia would not run without BSOs. You see those guys out at 4:00 in the morning on the $79 Sears and Wal-Mart stuff. The bikes fall apart. They get another. They may never buy a bike from me, but those things, they take the place of SEPTA at 4:00 in the morning and get those guys to and from Old City and to their jobs. Finally, there's the chains -- I hate to mention them -- EMS, REI, Performance Bikes. Reports are that 51 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 sales are up for just about everybody for the third year in a row. We're easily talking 10,000 new bikes rolling onto Philadelphia streets each and every year, thanks to bike shops. That is a powerful vote for the current market model that we have in Philadelphia. A lot of the credit goes to the Bike Coalition. They've worked really hard for bike improvements, often against the car huggers at PennDOT and the Streets Department. We are still trying to get the suits to turn this South Street Expressway Bridge into a proper urban connector that we can be proud of rather than scared of. So I hope you'll work on that. So here in Philadelphia, tens of thousands of citizens are voting to bike with their dollars, their times and actually sometimes you feel like with your lives. They realize just how simple and easy it is to get a bike. You get a 52 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 bike, a helmet, a lock, a good lock, some advice from your local bike shop. Boom, you're a bike commuter. It's not rocket science, but it does take good, skilled staff to put people on the right bike. Cyclists, bike shops and the Bicycle Coalition all agreed on the same slogan: "Making Biking Better," and we're all working on it. " I can't -- help me get a bike.

Whereas, the guy comes off from somewhere in South America or Mexico, they tell them, Wal-Mart, $79. Basically bicycling -- essentially the cost of cycling really is free, and you have to be more realistic. There's a BikeShare bike over there. I think it weighs 43 pounds. This bike weighs pounds and I don't 24 worry about locking it or anything. ) 53 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055

I couldn't do that. ) MR. ) So that's one cycling answer. It's not for everybody. The guys working in the restaurants are not going to spend a thousand. They can get a bike for 300 or 79. Nevertheless, I don't oppose bike sharing, and I'll get to that in a second. But we do have an earnest group of advocates who ask for our help as bike shops and as for cyclists, and then they basically put forth the proposal that cycling is not going to grow anymore in Philadelphia and it's almost impossible to become a bike commuter without a lot of other things. One of the proponents who will be speaking later leads off a lot of his pitches with a long story about theft and repair and how difficult it is, and the only answer is 54 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 BikeSharing, it's going to be great, which is strange because he rides his bike every day. I see him, and he brings it to our shop for repair from time to time and, by all accounts, is satisfied with bike commuting. But I think he feels there are some people that can't figure that out and a bike has to be lying there for them to get. I still am not totally against that, but it does bring out an interesting contradiction. Does anybody here think bicycling in the City is not a skill that has to be learned? ) MR. McGETTIGAN: Because BikeSharing would like to make it effortless to get a bike, but they sort of skip over the fact that it's actually fairly complex to ride a bike in the City, and I know because I have a 12-year-old son. I'm an effective cycling instructor and I'm still wrestling with how to set him off on his 55 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 own in a city where people blow red lights, use bike lanes for valet parking and have deeply tinted windows on their cars so you cannot even communicate with the driver. But we're hearing that this regular biking model is broken, that instead you need a 40-pound bike, it has to have a GPS on it, be connected to a robot kiosk and you need 100 shuttle trucks which will shunt these trucks back to places after they stack up in one spot. The trucks may burn clean -- so-called clean natural gas, which comes from somewhere, but let's not worry about that. And then, lastly, you need about a thousand -- and this is where my opposition hardens. You need a thousand billboards or more in most of these models placed on prime Center City and prime neighborhood property, which will generate tens of thousands of income, because I've seen their media kits and 56 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 what they charge per month for these, and most of the millions will leave town for some lucky media company and a little will be skimmed off to pay for the bikes. I'm not sure I agree with that. There's a few questions that should be answered before considering a Paris-style top-down bikes and billboard program. By the way, I don't oppose bike sharing. I'll get to that part. What are the real bottom lines? How much will Clear Channel profit from each individual billboard and collectively? What, if any, control will neighborhood groups and city planners retain over the billboards' placement and content? This is especially important with the new flat screen television billboards. We're talking six foot tall, four foot wide TVs on the street, maybe with sound, maybe with the ability to dial your cell phone as you walk by. This is coming. It's a European model. How much will each bike cost a 57 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 year, include liability and a percentage of infrastructure in the cost of each bike? What will be the cost to the City's image, property values and status as a tourist attraction and a place to live when these new billboards dominate the cityscape, as well they might?

What effect will BikeShare have on the City's emerging bike culture when you go -- many people are getting a bike that really works, that fit them, et cetera, which is a big part of making a bike efficient and becoming a real everyday cyclist. First it's a 42-pound bike that sort of works. Would you wear public shoes? I'm not sure. I suppose you could make them that would sort of fit everybody. A bike that fits is a delight. I'll sell you one. What effect will BikeShare have on the City's ability and willingness to provide proper parking access and bike improvements for those of us who already own bikes and commute now? They say it's positive, but there's a possibility -- 58 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Philly is a tight little town. The prime sponsor will be grabbed by the commercial and BikeShare, and bicyclists will be stuffed around the corner as scrap. I worry about my parking space just like drivers do. This is a deep one, and I'm not sure anybody is going to think about it, but how much ad revenue will be lost to the City's already strapped news media when advertisers shift their dollars to this new street medium? In the fifth largest major media market, there's only so many dollars that will be spent in advertising. Some of those dollars support the City Paper, the Weekly, the Inquirer, Fox News, 6, 3, 10. We learn about that and become informed Americans. Billboards are pure ads, which profit by degrading the environment around them and selling the environment to the public inescapably. Clear Channel and Decaux and 59 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Adshel boast in their media kits, they can't switch us off. I'm not particularly looking forward to working down the street and having to explain a scene from Grand Theft Auto showing on a six-foot-tall television screen. There have been comments to that effect about these animated kiosks in Dublin and in Paris being set up near churches or people's homes, and once they're in, they're connected to a bike program. They're transportation. It's just one more thing, like a nuisance bar or something, that you lose control of your neighborhood. And bottom line is, what is the real carbon footprint after calculating the energy used by the bike locking kiosks, natural gas burning bike shuttle trucks and including the energy consumed by billboard lighting and by flat screen television billboards? Will there be net energy savings over people simply owning 60 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 their bikes and using them to get places? I do also worry about bicyclists and the bicycle advocacy community. I've worked with a lot of them. By embracing billboard companies, we're abandoning some of our natural allies: tourist groups, neighborhood organizations, billboard foes, urbanists. They're all struggling to keep Philadelphia's valuable, yet fragile sense of place. I think we agree that Philadelphia is different, for better or worse. If we give up our street design and the look of our neighborhoods and our business districts to a top-down corporate mall advertising company, we give up one of Philadelphia's biggest advantages that gets people to live here and they don't live in a suburban sprawl. They want to live here because of our Phillyness, if that's a word. We only realize the value of our Phillyness when somebody chops off a piece of it. And I 61 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 think we've all seen that happen to different parts of the City. This, because of BikeShare and because of advertising scale, is not going to happen in one place. It's going to happen right where you live and everywhere in town and commercial places.

There have already been some settees with the bus shelter and bench people where they came into a neighborhood like Frankford and they said, We're going to put a bus shelter and a bench up and you can't have public art here because we need to put our bench and our sign here, and all the contracts from these companies give them a sort of majesty over the street. That worries me a little bit, that someone is going to control what my block looks like, what my kid sees on the street, on the television and I don't have control over. And I think tying a bike program, as much as I love bikes, to a marketing program like that makes it a little messy. I'm going to take a left turn 62 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 here. After all the above, you might be surprised to hear that I not only support bike sharing, but I want us to fast-track it, getting the first bikes on the street by spring 2010 so we beat New York. As a bike dealer and a businessperson, even an ugly Paris-style billboard and bike program will boost my sales. And I don't mind the money. But as a Philadelphian and a parent, I want a program that's good for the City, not just for cyclists. Some of my advocacy friends declare that resistance is futile and that universal advertising is a given. I disagree. Good cities take control of their environments, and I think with this new Administration, we're seeing that, and they become better places to live. Here's the kind of bike share that City Council and Philly's bike advocates should support. We're in the home stretch. It should not be ad based. Clear Channel, JCDecaux -- are they even 63 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 here? They'll be in in a minute -- and Adshel value Philadelphia's environment only to the extent that they can profit from it. It should be reviewable in short term.

Excuse me, Mr. McGettigan. We have some time constraints. MR. McGETTIGAN: I'm on my last page, sir.

Can we be on the last paragraph? MR. McGETTIGAN: Yup. Their insistence on 10- and 20-year contracts undermines local planning and saddles future administrations with unwieldy agreements. Look no further than the corrupt casino mess to see what happens when big corporations make long-term deals with politicians headed for the exit. If you want the worst, longest term deal where Philly gets the most billboards and the fewest bikes, go with 64 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 the corporations. Philly bike share should be home-grown, run by PhillyCarShare or similar individuals, with technical assistance from Neighborhood Bike Works and area bike shops. Let's go easy on the technology, the robots and the GPS and have programs that employ youth, that take more people to check in the bikes rather than a robot that sends money and profits out of town.

The end? MR. McGETTIGAN: Yeah. If Clear Channel wants to help us on a consultant basis or sell us some bikes and maybe even handle ads based on the bikes, okay, give us your cards, but let's do it Philly style. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your testimony. Interesting. Would anybody have any questions for the panelists? 65 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 (No response.)

Thank you very much.

One question. Please, Mr. -- forgive me. PhillyCarShare. Is your presence on the task force that the Health Commissioner and our Transportation Director spoke about?

It is not currently, no. 14

I think it would of great value for that task force to benefit from what you've already successfully done. So I would encourage you to register your interest with that task force.

I will. Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Rizzo.

This is not, I guess, the appropriate place, but maybe 66 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 you could follow up. I understood there was some controversy between PhillyCarShare and Procurement in reference to your business relationship. Has that been resolved?

I think that our relationship with the Administration is going to continue to be very positive. We trust that the Administration is going to do exactly what it needs to do in a very fair manner, and we're going to still be around here with a good relationship, no matter what happens. It hasn't been quite resolved entirely, but I think it will within the next week or so.

Okay. If you could give us maybe a letter or an e-mail giving us an update on exactly what the situation is, we would appreciate it.

Sure. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. 67 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055

Thank you very much, and we will consider all of this testimony, and we appreciate it. Thank you. We're going to call up our next panelists, and I want to emphasize that we have some time constraints. So if you can, to the degree that you can condense it and give us the Reader's Digest version, all written testimony will be submitted and be a part of the official record. Brittany Bonnette of BikeShare Philadelphia; Lewis Wendell, Executive Director of the University City District; Ms. Margaret Lenzi, President of Bike Club of Philadelphia. Are you here? Could you please come up. Russell Meddin. Is he here? (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Have a seat and please state your name for the record and submit your testimony. 68 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055

Good afternoon. My name is Brittany Bonnette and I'm a student at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm here today because I believe a public-use bicycle program is a perfect fit for the City of Philadelphia. I wrote my thesis on the topic of the implementation of a public-use bicycle program in Philadelphia, and I hope to provide personal testament to the brilliance of such a program and also to provide a successful role model program for Philadelphia as a public-use bicycle program. I fell in love with bike sharing while I was abroad for a year in Lyon, France. While there, I quickly discovered the Velo'v program, the name of their program, which is the first large-scale third generation, which is a technologically advanced program as you can see with this bike here, that you can remove it with a card or the so-called robots. Introduced in May of 2005, 69 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Velo'v began with 2,000 bicycles and it's currently moving to 4,000 bicycles at 350 stations throughout the city. Needless to say, it's very difficult to miss Velo'v in the City of Lyon. With over 50,000 annual subscribers, one of which was myself, and over 20,000 daily bicycle rentals, this program has, without a doubt, been very successful and has impressed me from day one with the ease of use, the affordability and the accessibility of the program. As someone who used Velo'v consistently as my own personal public transportation throughout my time in Lyon, I just wanted to outline how the program works. The stations are easy to find, with an average distance of 300 to 500 meters throughout the city, about a five-minute walk to get to a station, and the stations are easily accessible. Annual subscribers have a card where you can walk up to a kiosk and tap the card against the reader on the kiosk and 70 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 release a bicycle. People who do not subscribe annually can purchase daily or weekly passes directly from the kiosk. When you pick your bicycle number, the bicycle -- the computer unlocks the bicycle and you can take your bicycle and ride it to any place throughout the city and park it at any other station. Like I said, the stations are very close together, very easy to find. The simplicity of the use actually goes beyond this, though. They're well stocked with well-maintained bicycles that the city has provided, and there's no reason to worry about having my own private bicycle and having a tire that's flat or having my bike get stolen, which has happened numerous times in Philadelphia even with the best of locks, and also no worries about where to store the bicycle. I was able to travel throughout the city within 30 minutes of my allotted 71 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 time. In Lyon, the first 30 minutes are free. I paid virtually nothing for a year of use. I paid only the -- I paid a check for a deposit, which was 150 euros, and that was a deposit in case my bicycle -- in case I stole the bicycle. And then I paid euros for the year, 9 and then I virtually only paid about five 10 euros for the rest of the year to use it 11 as my own personal transportation. 12 I used it to get to school. I 13 used it to go downtown. I used it to go 14 to dinner. I used it to go to work. It 15 really is, as Gilles Vesco, one of the 16 heads of the programs in Lyon, said, 17 public-use bicycles make public 18 transportation into public individual 19 transportation. And in concert with the 20 metro and the bussing systems in Lyon, the city has become more accessible and has responded to the personal needs of its citizens. What's so impressive, though, is that everybody uses it in Lyon. It's 72 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 accessible to anybody over the age of and can be accessed through a simple check deposit or a credit card.

High 5 school students -- I've seen high school 6 students use it to go to sports 7 practices, just as much as I've seen 8 people older than my parents use it to 9 get to and from work every single day. 10 With over 30 percent of the users 11 employed full time, Velo'v has become a 12 very popular commuter option. 13 Operational 24 hours a day. Metros in 14 Lyon closed at 12 o'clock at night. So you could use this bicycle if you were out late or had to get to work early in the morning. And available typically without any wait. And, again, as I said, with the first 30 minutes free, Velo'v and public-use bicycles in general provide efficient, reliable and affordable public individual transportation. Not to mention it's a sustainable option with zero emissions. After my year in Lyon, I 73 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 returned to Philadelphia and realized the possibility of a very successful program here. In setting about developing a public-use bicycle program in Philadelphia, as many people have said, a role model or a successful business model is necessary. I'm not here to say that Lyon is exactly the program that we need to follow, but I'm here to say the successes are comparable. 4 million people in Lyon's metropolitan area. The cities are both regarded as university cities with large student populations. What is most striking, however, is that Lyon, prior to the start of the Velo'v program, was not at all a bicycle-friendly city. Choked with congestion, as is Philadelphia and many large cities, the City of Lyon was determined to change this and has made an impact with its public-use bicycle 74 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 program. With 180 miles of bike lanes currently in Lyon, the city is far behind Philadelphia's 250 miles. Even more significant is that the bicycle mode share in Lyon, which shows how many citizens use bicycles as their main method of transportation, in Lyon at the start of the program the bicycle mode share was well below one percent, which is also currently where Philadelphia's bicycle mode share rests. Whereas now, after the program has been implemented in Lyon, they boast a mode share of over four percent. These similarities of size, of climate and a bicycle culture between the City of Lyon and the City of Philadelphia show that what has worked in Lyon, while never tried in America in the exact way that Lyon has, could most certainly work in Philadelphia. It is my personal belief and the belief of some 700 citizens who have written to Mayor Michael Nutter to take action on this 75 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 issue and the belief of many members in this room that public-use bicycles can succeed in Philadelphia, providing the world with a role model for a North American sustainable city, a city in which the quality of life and accessibility of their citizens is valued over the dominance of automobiles. And I strongly urge City Council to support pursuing a public-use bicycle program here in Philadelphia. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak today.

Thank you for your testimony. (Applause.)

Hello. My name is Margaret Lenzi. I'm the President of the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia. The Bicycle Club of Philadelphia was founded in 1979 and is an all-volunteer non-profit organization with over 1,000 members. BCP, as our acronym is, we are the premier bicycling 76 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 club in Philadelphia and we run hundreds of cycling rides each year for cyclists of all levels. We primarily do recreational road bike riding. I am here to say that our organization strongly supports the creation of a public-use bicycle program in the City of Philadelphia because it will facilitate more bicycling in the Philadelphia community and provide an environmentally friendly and healthier transportation option to many residents, visitors and workers in Philadelphia. As might be expected, many of our members ride on a regular basis. Some are commuters, some ride for recreation, some ride a lot and some ride a little bit. However, I'm convinced that more of our members would ride even more if there was a bike-sharing alternative available. Such a program would make it easier to do short commutes for errands and work, and such a program would also make cycling safer for all of 77 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 our members. How is that, you might ask? It has been our experience and I think it's been alluded to that the more cyclists you have on the road, the safer it is for the cyclists and really for everyone. The car drivers slow down. They recognize that you have a right to bike, and it makes it a more safe transportation system for everyone. So bike sharing will increase more bikers on the road and make it safe for everyone. As the City knows and we'll get more and more information in the year to come, there is a multiplicity of approaches to bike-sharing programs and there's a growing cadre of experts in this area. So we now have the benefit of bicycling programs like this in Europe and we have one in our own Washington, DC, and we certainly can learn from these programs, but we believe that certain principles should guide Philadelphia in the creation of a public-use bicycling 78 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 program. Number one, it should be low cost or no cost so that a majority of Philadelphians can participate, including low-income members of our city. Number two, the bike should be simple, such as internally geared, one to three speeds, and with comfort features so that everyone can ride them. Number three, there should be user-friendly access to bikes such as a smart card or a library card or tokens. This is a way that many of the programs use, and it's very successful. Number four, there should be a safety and maintenance plan so that everyone rides safe and securely. Number five, there should be a security mechanism to prevent theft. The knowledge base is present to develop a well-run and sustainable public-use bicycle program in Philadelphia. The public support is present. What we most need now is for 79 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 our elected officials to make this a priority in this administration. The members of BCP look forward to seeing a public-use bicycle program in Philadelphia in the near future. Thank you very much for your time.

Has everyone submitted copies of their testimony, by the way?

I have a copy.

Good afternoon. My name is Russell Meddin. I'm an advocate for public-use bicycling here for Philadelphia, but I'm sure most of you know that already. I have been working for a very long time to bring the idea of public-use bicycling to the City. I want you to know, public-use bicycling has changed urban transportation in cities all over the world. It is considered ecological mobility, a more carbon neutral form of public transportation that gives the user 80 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 individual mobility within the City. Now is the time for public-use bike sharing to change Philadelphia. I'm sure all of you saw the Daily News today. On the cover it says "Let Us Pay." Gasoline prices are skyrocketing and a recent report on the radio said that many people think within a year it might even be over $8. And when gasoline gets to be that expensive, things have to change. And here is an opportunity for Philadelphia to do something for its citizens to make it much easier to get around this great city. We want to have a bicycle-sharing program that is all over the City, in Councilman O'Neill's district, in Councilman DiCicco's district, in Councilman Jones' district and for all Philadelphians whose Council district is at large. Not a pilot program, a full system, a system that is up and running in a very short period of time, because we're going to need it. 81 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 One of the things that was mentioned today -- and I really would like for you to consider it -- and, that is, that the popularity of this program, idea of this program, has been overwhelming, and to make bike sharing a reality, the City needs to conduct a survey that was spoke about earlier to study station placement and the demand usage that's needed so that we know in advance, no matter how we plan on putting a bike-sharing program on the streets of Philadelphia, where it has to go for the best benefit of our population. Much of Paris' success for their bike-sharing program can be attributed to the exact same homework done before the program was launched. There was a consultant asked to do a survey of the city. They did it in a very short period of time. From the time in which the survey was finished until the time the bicycles were on the street was four months. It can be done quickly 82 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 and in a way that serves everybody. From this point on, we're going to hear more about gasoline prices and the cost of petroleum products, and, therefore, the cost of transportation of our citizens of our city is going to go up. From this point on, we're going to hear about automobiles clogging our streets and the expressways where traffic moves slower than a walking pace and something needs to be done. From this point on, we're going to be faced with declining health of our sedentary population, shackled with obesity and Type 2 diabetes, which is aggravated by increasing levels of carbon dioxide pollution. Public-use bicycling is not the panacea for what we're facing now, but it's a great first step which we can take to lessen the problems that are now facing our city. Many cities around the world have acknowledged the importance of this 83 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 new form of transportation and they are right now today reaping the benefits of this new type of transportation. City Council has the opportunity to move Philadelphia on a new bicycle road to a more sustainable city. I hope you take this opportunity to help bring public-use bicycling to our great city, no matter what form it takes, through street furniture financing, non-profit financing or City financing. Let's have it and let's have it now. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

I want to thank the panel. Are there any questions? Councilman.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's not really a question that I have. It's more or less an observation. I've been listening to most of 84 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 the testimony from a lot of good people here this afternoon, and I agree with almost all of the testimony. This is a great program. It could be implemented. I just want to make sure that any program that we have regarding bicycles put in the City, there's two issues that have to be addressed, and one is liability, because you have to remember that Philadelphia is probably the leading city in, if not the nation, the world in lawsuits, and I think that's one of the things they really have to look at, and also maintenance. Maintenance is -- in fact, it's one of the things that hasn't been addressed so much this afternoon as it should be. I would just like to say that it could be a problem if a bicycle, for instance, is defective in any way and it causes an accident, who is responsible, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'm not looking for any specific answers to this, but I think 85 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 what we have to do is to make sure that those issues are really taken into consideration in any program.

If the Councilman doesn't mind, could I just address that real quickly?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilman Kelly.

Real quickly, as far as liability goes, one of the things that we've been thinking about -- and that is an issue in the United States, not so much in Europe. In any bicycle-sharing program that comes to Philadelphia, we are hoping that the City of Philadelphia will take a position in ownership, because it will be needed to be done to put the bicycles on the streets, especially if there's on-street parking. And if that's the case, that does lessen the liability issue because of sovereign immunity the City has. 86 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Although people will sue no matter what, but you can lessen your exposure. That's one thing. The second thing, maintenance. The bicycle you see right here that we have that is a really good example of a bike-sharing bike -- there are others -- it has a lock on it that when you dock it into the rack, if there is a problem with it, it automatically locks and you cannot take it out until the problem has been corrected. And the best thing about bike sharing that we have not mentioned at all today is jobs, and I guess they're being called green collar jobs, although I have on a blue collar shirt. It creates a minimum of 120 jobs, probably more, both front end and back end, and it's a great way to take people and to train them in places where they have not had the opportunity to do something, get a really good-paying job. So I hope that answered your 87 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 question, Councilman Kelly.

Thank you.

Any other questions? (No response.)

Thank you so much for your testimony. (Applause.)

We're going to call our next panel and our final panel. Martin McDonough, Marina Schmidt and Mark Madden. Are you here? (Witnesses approached witness table.)

We have your written testimony. We saw it was rather lengthy. If you could summarize, that would be good. We are pressed for time. It does not in any way indicate a lack of interest in this issue. We are committed to it and we're going to work our way through it. We just have other colleagues that are pressed for time as well. 88 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Thank you. Could you begin your testimony. State your name for the record, please. MR. McDONOUGH: My name is Martin McDonough. I'm representing JCDecaux. I'm President of Wall/Decaux, Inc., with operations in Boston and St. Louis, and we're here and were requested to bring the bicycle, which we brought in. We have two five-minute videos on Velo'v and Velib, the program in Paris and Lyon, respectively, and we have a small PowerPoint presentation. In the interest of time, I can skip that and go to the videos, if you'd like.

Thank you. MR. McDONOUGH: Would you like to go to the videos?

Yes. They're five minutes? MR. McDONOUGH: Yeah, five minutes.

We 89 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 appreciate you took such time to set it up. At least we could let him do it. (Mr. McDonough setting up videos.) (Pause.)

Councilman DiCicco pointed out they are certainly more quiet than cars. (Pause.)

While we're waiting, why don't we proceed with your testimony and then we'll come back to his. State your name for the record, please.

Good afternoon. My name is Mark Madden. I'm with Cemusa. I'm the Director of Business Development. Good afternoon to you, Councilmembers, Chairman, fellow citizens. I, too, have a PowerPoint. I don't know how you want to go through this, but I've also provided -- I think you all have it -- a catalogue. We can 90 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 just walk through it that way in the interest of time, if that's helpful.

That works for us.

Okay. Essentially, Cemusa, we are a global leader in the outdoor furniture industry. We are a Madrid-based firm, headquartered in Madrid. We're in over 130 cities, 11 countries, with over 160,000 structures 12 in the ground. We're in such cities as 13 Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Miami. This is kind of a sample of where we are. We are a subsidiary of a larger firm, spans the largest municipal services provider, a century-old firm, which has never defaulted on a government contract. (Music playing.) MR. McDONOUGH: Sorry about that. We have sound.

Okay. Proceed. 91 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055

It's no problem. So as I was saying, on Slide 2, you'll notice we're a street furniture company. Our core business is street furniture. That's all we do. We only provide structures that service citizens. So we don't do billboards. We don't do media. We don't do television, radio, things such as this. On the next slide, you see some of the representative countries. The following slide are our designers. We use world-renowned designers in things that we do. We want to do it with class. Our international architects include Giorgetto Giurgiaro, who designed the Maserati and the Lamborghini, also the train, if you've been to Oslo; Richard Rogers, who designed the central pump you do in Paris; and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, who has done a number of things, including in New York, if you've seen the new Staten Island Ferry Terminal, at the end, the 92 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 glass structure, and also all of the bus shelters that are going up in New York City and newsstands are from Richard Rogers -- or excuse me, Nicholas Grimshaw.

Did you say bus shelters?

That's correct.

We'll get back to that one. Go ahead.

The following slide, one of our core principles is the environment. We focus on using recyclable products in all of the street furniture that we manufacture to reduce the carbon footprint. Further, we try to use solar power as much as possible when we can use it to eliminate our structures. For example, in Miami, we have over a thousand shelters that are all solar illuminated, to the degree that they were the only structures standing after all five hurricanes and illuminating the city during the chaos 93 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 period. Further, we use biodegradable cleaners to kind of reduce any sort of soaps and chemicals that are pushed into society. Just moving over to bicycle-sharing systems and Cemusa's experience, Slide 7, San Sebastian, we have a number of current stations, five; number of current bikes is 500. We expect to grow that pilot to about 50 total stations and 500 bikes within the year's time. Pamplona, Spain, if you're familiar with "running of the bulls," we have a 12-year contract, which will probably run for 17 years, total 19 stations expected, 350 bikes, which has 20 kicked off this year. The only days of the year that it's closed are Christmas and obviously the day of the "running of the bulls," July 7th. Further, we just were awarded a pilot for Rome, Italy to install 22 94 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 stations and 250 bikes. The estimated RFP will probably be for 400 total stations and 5,000 bikes. I guess some of the major issues that we're hearing and some of the things you've already heard from many of the people that have surfaced, bicycle sharing here, are kind of the benefits to society. Some of the things that I bring forward to you are things that have already been mentioned, so I don't want to echo them too bad, but essentially, we're providing an additional form and environmental-friendly public transportation option to citizens and tourists. We're reducing traffic congestion, as well as noise and air pollution. We're increasing mobility for citizens and tourists, as well as promoting sustainable energy uses. We're integrating exercise into sedentary modern lifestyles and we're offering a wise use of metro urban space. These are all the types of things that I think that 95 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 the society is pushing for towards a greener community, right? We've heard testimony about, well, billboards finance this, billboards don't finance this, how does this work, et cetera, et cetera. Methods to create a bicycle program can come at no cost to the municipality. They can be conducted through user fees, federal funding, which you'd be entitled to because this is a green program, which will be -- you can look into grants. I think there was some mention by the Kellogg organization here. And other, obviously as mentioned before too, advertising on the rental stations, the bike themselves or other street furniture structures. Again, just keeping in the essence of time here, moving on, developing the bicycle program for your city, I highly encourage you to conduct a study or a feasibility study for this. What is the City's goal with the bike-share program? I do think it's 96 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 very -- I grew up in this area, so I kind of know the Philadelphia territory. I think it's a very achievable program for the City, but not -- you need to know what you need and you need to know what you want. That said, what types of transportation options would Philadelphia like to reduce and why? How simple or robust should the bicycle system be? How many stations do you need? You need to measure out how many -- if you get a flat tire, is it going to be difficult for someone to walk? They sustain -- as you can see the size of the bike, they don't really sustain flat tires. They have rubber tires that are designed to similarly -- almost like automobiles. Further, what are the criteria for success for this program?

What are your citizens going to tell you? How are you going to achieve that? And what is the sustainable level of this program? Finally, we offer you just a 97 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 bike-sharing program, a high-level framework on the back page to kind of get you started. We'd be glad to kind of walk through that for you at another time or contact us to kind of help you do that feasibility study, as we've had to do it in several cities over. We'd be glad to help you out in that, and I've left our contact information at the back of this project. Any questions?

I just have one question because of Ms. Cutler's comment. Do you have a system that looks at bus shelters, newsstands and also maybe subway stations to look at compatible designs?

I'm sorry?

In reference to a bus station, a bus stop would have a bus shelter, a subway station and also a newsstand. If I looked at your pamphlet correctly, you have designs that meet all three? 98 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055

Sure.

And there is a consistency.

Exactly. We do newsstands, automatic public toilets, bus shelters, information kiosks, all of those things. Again, furniture that provides services to citizens. If you need something, for example, the next bus system, which would go in and let us know, similar to Europe, what time the next bus will be arriving, that sort of technology can be put on even newsstands. We're doing stock tickers on the newsstands in New York City in the financial district. There's a lot of things that can be very good and proactive for the community and not just for advertising.

Thank you.

Any other questions? (No response.)

I encourage you to 99 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 contact us if you have anything further in terms of a feasibility study. Thank you for your time.

Trust that we will.

Thank you. Why don't we get the verbal testimony out of the way and then we can watch the videos and have some questions afterwards.

Thank you, Chairman Jones, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, Councilmen DiCicco, Kelly. My name is George Kauker. I'm President of Clear Channel Outdoor's Philadelphia Division. I am here today to talk about our public bike-sharing system, SmartBike. And I will condense my testimony. The full testimony is at your disposal. Historians of bike-sharing programs have recognized Clear Channel Outdoor as the leading pioneer in this field. The very first installation was 100 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 ours in the City of Rennes in France in 1998. Subsequently, our bike-sharing programs were eagerly adopted by other Clear Channel Outdoor client cities in Scandinavia and Spain. This spring, we will become the first company to design, manufacture and implement a computerized bike-sharing program on U.S. soil in Washington, DC as part of our advertising bus shelter program. SmartBike is the premier bicycle rental program of its kind in the world, well tested, user and environmentally friendly and complementary to the other modes of public transportation. It is indisputably the world's only street-proven system that has been developed and refined during more than ten years of program operation and long before other media companies embraced the concept of bicycle rental programs. SmartBike is the fruit of more than a decade of operational performance 101 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 and continuous improvement by Clear Channel Outdoor in design, engineering, electronics and the integration of public-use bicycles to the cityscape, a level of experience no other company can claim. Users can buy subscriptions via the Internet or phone or directly at the rental station and then receive a personalized card in the mail. The system support is electronic and backed by a human maintenance team that continuously redistributes bicycles from rental stations where they are in excess to stations in short supply and also performs on-the-spot repairs. Bike sharing is a proven method for improving local transportation with a low environmental footprint. Aside from not adding to air pollution, there are many other benefits, all of which have been discussed today. Given Clear Channel Outdoor's deep understanding of a bike-sharing program, it stands to reason that we can 102 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 make valuable contributions to conceptualizing, planning and execution of a similar project for Philadelphia. We know how to make them suitable for different local circumstances of climate, topography, bike-riding paths and so forth, and we understand too that patience and endurance are necessary before these projects gain the critical mass of user acceptance. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. I'm very familiar with Clear Channel and what you do. I was surprised that you actually do bike share, and it just amazes me that you are going to be the first in the --

As a matter of fact, on of our testimony, there's a list of cities where we currently have bike-share programs.

Thank you. 103 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 We'll proceed with the video now. MR. McDONOUGH: This is Lyon first and then Paris. (Partial video shown.)

Do you have it in English that we can actually read maybe? MR. McDONOUGH: I can go into the PowerPoint in English.

Why don't we do that.

While we wait for our professional here -- (Witness speaking without microphone.)

Okay. MR. McDONOUGH: JCDecaux is a company that does worldwide street furniture.

Identify yourself for the record, please, sir. MR. McDONOUGH: Sure. My name is Martin McDonough. I'm with JCDecaux. 104 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 I am President of Wall/Decaux, Inc. in Boston. I'm responsible for operations in Boston and St. Louis. We are a worldwide leader in street furniture and we are a worldwide leader in bike sharing at this point. JCDecaux is in the street furniture, billboard, transit and mall advertising, 54 countries, 8,900 employees. We are consistent with a lot of the comments earlier today, the number one company worldwide in street furniture, number one in airport advertising, billboards in Europe, in addition to China, and we are now number one in self-service bicycles worldwide. , 97 shopping malls. We have street furniture in five of the top six markets, including Boston and Chicago, and we are very active in New York transit. I think one of the more important comments about bicycle 105 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 transportation is that it is an alternate mode of transit, and a bike-sharing program is a complementary transit alternative to existing transit modes. It's not a replacement for them, and it is certainly in the sense of bike sharing much different than recreational biking. S. cities. We've had great success with it overseas, particularly in France, and in a city like Philadelphia, which is a very dense city and has a high student population, it's going to work. I'll go through this real quickly. The three advantages that we see for bike sharing, regardless of who is operating the system, are, it's an alternative to improved mobility, it improves quality of life and it will boost bicycle usage. This is the nuts and bolts of a bike-sharing system. Obviously you have the bike. It is heavy. It's designed to 106 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 be used by all individuals. And one thing that's important to consider relative to testimony that we had earlier, it's designed for people and 6 above. So it's not designed for 7 children. It's designed for adults. 8 It's designed as an alternate mode of 9 transportation. 10 This is the nuts and bolts of 11 the bike-sharing system, which is a post 12 and kiosk system, complemented by the 13 bikes. 14 The bike itself, which you can see, is identifiable. It's universal in size. It's very durable. These are actually steel-frame bikes. They are 42 pounds. They're heavy, and they're designed to be heavy. They're designed to be used in an urban environment by multiple users per day. They're very safe, they're comfortable and they're easy to ride. Basically, to access the bike, you're going to wave a membership card or 107 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 insert a credit card. You're going to choose a bike and release the bike from the post. It's that simple. One of the things to consider when you are investigating bike sharing and particularly in a city like Philadelphia is how much space are you going to require. Twenty bikes can go in the space of two cars. Just to give you an idea of some cities that this is working -- and I'm not sure if you can see that, but we're active in 14 cities with over 30,000 bicycles at this point. Some of the cities where this is working include Vienna, Cordoba, Lyon, Brussels, Paris. And Paris, I won't try to show you the video, but we have 20,000 bicycles and 100,000 users each day. It's a tremendous success story. And also one thing to consider that does involve job creation and is really an important part to consider of this is, most people take a bike and ride 108 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 it down the hill. It's a huge logistics issue moving these bikes around. When you're going from location to location as an intermodal form of transportation, you're not just going from one place to the same place every day.

And there are people who take the train, move to a bike and then take it to work and go back, but what you might often see is that they are going someplace on their lunch break, they are going someplace different, and because of that, they're picking up their bike in one place and leaving it in another. That means that a program like this from an operational perspective is a huge logistics issue, and that's, in part, a big part of the work. The other big part of it is, in a program like this, you're going to see about 15 to 20 percent shrinkage in a system. That means 15 to 20 percent of the bikes are either stolen or damaged, and that includes both. So there's a pretty huge operational cost for a 109 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 program like this. That's why as you review some of the numbers and consider some of the costs and some of the way to implement this, you might want to consider that, in rough terms, to 7 percent is what you're dealing with in 8 terms of usage. So the cost of running a 9 program like this are not only the 10 capital costs for the bicycles and not 11 only the planning costs and planning the 12 space and putting them in the right spot, 13 but it's also 15 to 20 percent in stolen 14 or lost bicycles or damaged bicycles and 15 also the logistics of maintaining them 16 and moving them around. And that 17 activity and that work is substantial. 18 The good news is, it creates 19 lots of jobs and good jobs. The bad news 20 is, it's costly. Compared to other modes of transportation, including bus or train or other modes of transportation, there's no cheaper way to move that many people. However, it's a fairly expensive undertaking. Whether that's funded by 110 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 federal funds or advertising or grants or whatnot, it is an expensive system, particularly if it's used a lot. The other important thing for bike sharing is -- one of the issues that's important is critical mass. We don't believe and our success, our experience in France has been that if you don't have enough critical mass, it's not a transportation mode. We listened to people saying they pick up the bike at one place and go to another. They use it for going to dinner, they use it for going out. If the bikes aren't available on every corner, it's not a real good system. It's not like taking the bus or getting a train. So you can do a pilot program to test the concept, but to make it an alternate form of transportation, there's got to be critical mass. And that means in a city the size of Philadelphia, we would envision several thousands of bikes, probably at a minimum, 250 stations, 3,000, 4,000 111 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 bikes. That's what you're going to need to do that. And if you run the numbers on bikes and stations and kiosks, it's a substantial project from a capital investment perspective, and it needs to be funded somehow. I wouldn't say that anything under a thousand bikes is going to be meaningful in terms of a transportation mode, based on our experience. In terms of ways that it can be funded, it can be funded, as we've talked about, through advertising. It doesn't have to be through advertising. It can be funded through sponsorship, user fees, transportation funds or grants. We will make our videos and copies of our presentations available. If there are any questions, we're happy to take them. Thank you.

Are there any questions from the panel? (No response.)

Councilwoman 112 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 Brown has a closing comment.

First, let me say a huge thank you to everyone who offered testimony, which I found to be both informative, instructive and certainly suggests or urges us to, again, slow walk this, because there's so many factors that we have to consider. We will be working closely with the Administration as we seek to come up with recommendations to roll this out. And we are begging for copies of your testimony so that as we reread everything that we've heard here today, we have the benefit of everybody's text. So if you do not have copies, please see Joe Meade for that. I want to thank Councilman Jones, the co-sponsor of this resolution, who chairs Transportation, on this particular issue. So thank you all very, very much for the homework that lies ahead. Thank you very much. 113 4/30/08 - ENVIRON. & TRANS. - RES. 080055 (Applause.)

This concludes our hearing on bike share. This is a joint Committee of Environmental and Transportation and Public Utilities. We will be at recess to the call of the Chair. (Committee on Environment and Transportation and Public Utilities adjourned at 3:40 p.m.) - - - 114 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on April 30, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)