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Observant_Neighbor t1_j7pokgh wrote

bike new haven was a massive failure. Putting aside the political meddling in station locations (where bike new haven predicted no use), the entire thing was paid by advertising adjacent to the bike stations. The ads were terrible. After a short period of use, the bikes were pulled for relaunch to a new system to allow for rental without a smart phone or credit card. The new system never debuted.

I live and work in New Haven. My office is downtown. I'm here all the time. During the entire tenure of bike new haven, I used them twice. I only saw someone else use the bikes 2 or 3 times over the time period. Many were taken and left elsewhere in New Haven for later pick up.

A few things contributed to the failure. Yale has their own bike share. Many bike focused folks already have and use their own bikes. The balance of the city's residents did not appear to be disposed to use the bikes, even if free. Until it is too costly to drive, folks won't bike. Many will suffer on the bus before biking.

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green_lemonade t1_j7qavsw wrote

That or the bike infrastructure is just not good enough for the casual bicyclist i.e. people who would otherwise choose an uber to get from union station to downtown or Yale.

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sothisiswhyhmm t1_j7vkloj wrote

That or people cycling would rather not die because every driver out there runs red lights and never uses a signal.

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green_lemonade t1_j7wnay2 wrote

Literally though. Its a shame, New Haven should be a fantastic city for walking and bicycling. I cant believe we're still painting death trap cycle lanes squeezed between parking and traffic in 2023

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daybeers t1_j7xpxms wrote

100%. I'm a year-round biker in NHV and some of the new infrastructure is pretty great, but it's pretty pathetic there hasn't been movement on safe streets for all. I don't get it; would make the city better for everyone and cement it on the map because of something other than Yale.

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green_lemonade t1_j7y1rm3 wrote

One of the Devil's Gear guys mentioned a local bicycling advocacy non-profit, I think I'm gonna get involved. We need some pro-bicycling pro-pedestrian attack Karens on our side

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eclaireg t1_j7whh6c wrote

That plus Covid happening right after its launch. What a complete and massive bust.

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