It's a profession that extracts value without providing any. They sell a product that they did not make - with little-to-no local competition - to people who are essentially *forced* to buy them, since you can't navigate most American communities without a car.

(Still mostly unstyled - I'm focusing on the functionality first)

Always wondered how they got the cars into malls. Very polite of the car to take the stairs instead of crowding the elevator.

Ideas are easy! Execution is really, really hard!

These are my thoughts as well. The caps/decks would definitely be an improvement over current expansion plans, but it's so expensive that the "bang for your buck" of that kind of money is just too low.

Oh, gotcha, yeah always fair to ask "what is the best way to spend this money to support non-car transportation?" Not sure if the grant here could have been used for something like that. re: subsidizing EV cycle co, MetroBike is owned by CapMetro, which is part of city gov't.

In a study published in Ecological Economics, it was estimated that society generally foots the bill for 41% of the total costs associated with car driving - with the total cost being ~$640k per driver over a lifetime. Much cheaper for a city to maintain a fleet of e-bikes. Source in link card.

As alternatives to cars - which we already subsidize very heavily. Cars have a lot of hidden costs. There are those associated with pollution and noise pollution. Cities provide free roads and parking. Cars are dangerous, and require dedicated law enforcement. E-bikes are none of these things.

Sarcasm or no?

They're also very valuable for anyone who wants to "try out" e-bikes before committing to buying one. I live car-free thanks to my e-bike, but I never would have had the confidence to buy an e-bike if I wasn't able to rely on Citibike for months beforehand.