SDOT director Kubly writes op-ed amid bike-share skepticism

Just a few days after news broke that Seattle Department of Transportation Director Scott Kubly wasn’t a member of the bike-share program he pushed so hard to keep afloat, he praised another sharing program.

Kubly wrote an op-ed for The Seattle Times, touting the decision to remove the cap on the number of annual car-sharing permits issued in the city. There was previously a cap of 750 vehicular permits for each car-share company operating in Seattle.

Related: Not even SDOT bike leaders signed up for Pronto!

KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney wonders if the op-ed was, at least partially, a response to the bike-share criticism. Was he trying to point out that he isn’t a bike-share member but a car-share member?

In his op-ed, Kubly says if he isn’t walking to work, he is driving to work in a car-share vehicle. He’s apparently a “proud car-share guy,” Tom says.

KIRO Radio’s John Curley is even more skeptical than Tom. After it was discovered that Kubly was found to have ties with the bike-share program the City of Seattle eventually purchased, Curley wonders if Kubly has financial connections to a car-share service.

“Does he have inside sources or connections to [car-share] as well?” Curley asked.

Tom argues one of the reasons he was hired at SDOT was all the experience he had with bike-share programs. It’s probably not fair to insinuate that Kubly is doing something questionable.

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