Arlington County has released a Request for
Proposals for the operation of the Arlington Bike-sharing Program (RFP #56-09).
The tender proposes a unique relationship between a local government and
bike-sharing operator. The vendor will be responsible for operating the
service, which includes administration, maintaining and distributing bikes, and
collecting data. Arlington’s responsibilities will be for marketing the
service, finding advertisements for the bikes, and providing some customer
care. A pre-bid conference for interested vendors will be held on March 5 and
the RFP will close on April 2.
The tender has the vendor purchasing “an off-the-shelf
system, if not having a system of its own devise, and operating it for the
public’s benefit.” Even just one year ago there weren’t many options for
off-the-shelf systems, but now a handful are on the market, including Public
Bike System, nextbike, Intrago, Smoove, and B-cycle. Arlington will keep
revenues generated from the service, which include the membership and usage fees
as well as advertisement revenues. The tender also offers incentives for
meeting strict performance standards and fines for not doing so.
Arlington County does not allow on-street advertising with
bus shelters, kiosks, billboards, and the like, so it is unable to have a
bike-sharing service offered as part of an advertising contract as many cities
have done. It is hoping to compensate for this by having advertisements on the
bikes, as this form of advertising is legal in the public domain in Arlington,
to assist with the financial sustainability of the program.
With the President's Stimulus package signed yesterday, Arlington's bike-sharing program would be an ideal "wrench-ready" project to create jobs and get people moving in the new green 21st Century way.
by Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington
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