Portland is considering a bike sharing program like Paris and had the four potential vendors pitching their wares at Sunday Parkways this year. There were some interesting philosophical questions posed by the local entreprenuer that does Portland Bicycle Tours. Their point was that if the City selected them, they would employ some folks locally that were unemployed.
The first vendor, bixi was from Montreal and looked most professional. They recently won the Boston and London contracts and are probably the most likely to succeed. Their staff even had matching outfits, so you know that's a great sign. B Cycle is a consortium of Humana (the health folks??), Trek Bicycle Corporation, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky (??), which seems to have the best bikes, since they could be maintained by local suppliers (Bike Gallery).
The third potential supplier is Bike Share Group, but they had these goofy little bike houses that I had to chuckle a little bit. Apparently, they are based in Seattle and more information is available here.
Finally, there is the home grown option, which I would be curious learning more about. I imagine financing is a huge issue for these guys.
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