Rantz: Not even SDOT bike leaders signed up for Pronto!
May 5, 2016, 1:18 PM | Updated: Jun 14, 2016, 8:16 am
The financial outlook for the Pronto! bike share looks even worse than previously thought; good thing the City of Seattle recently purchased the program, right?
How bad is it? Not even the biggest fans of Pronto! from the City of Seattle are members. According to The Seattle Times, the SDOT employee who leads Seattle’s biking efforts, Nicole Freedman, doesn’t hold a membership. She declined to comment much on this revelation, citing the question as too personal.
SDOT Director Scott Kubly, who has ties to Pronto!, is also without a membership.
Related: Pronto lie means Seattle didn’t vet bike program before foolish bailout
In fact, city employees also have no love for the program despite their membership fees being highly subsidized. The Times reports:
Of about 13,000 city employees, 110 are Pronto members, according to figures provided by the Department of Transportation. The city subsidizes Pronto memberships for its employees, and city workers can get annual memberships for $35, which is less than half the $85 annual price Pronto charges the public.
This makes sense: Almost no one uses Pronto! Year-over-year ridership for April is down dramatically — about 40 percent — despite April’s fantastic weather. No word yet whether or not the city council is embarrassed they bailed out this stinker of a business.
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