Commuting - Bought a year subscription to the local bike share program

They had a coupon for $15 off in honor of bike/walk to work week, so the subscription ended up costing $45 + tax.

Supposedly you get $500 of coupons to local businesses, so if any of them are places I frequent I could end up saving a few $$$.

Coupons aside I'd have have to make about 10 trips using one of their bikes in the next year to make it worthwhile. I have my own bike (obviously) but I can see using one to run a quick errand across town if for whatever reason I didn't have my bike or didn't want to worry about locking it up.

I can also use one as a loaner bike if friends are in town.

Mostly I guess I wanted to support the system. I think it's a good thing for the area.

It is nice to support a bicycle infrastructure item if you can afford it... especially when it is getting off the ground. I have been thinking about springing for a membership to Des Moines new BCycle program... even though I'm unlikely to ever need it.

I've looked at DC's, but have a bit of an issue with full liability on the bike if someone steals it. DC's a high theft bike town. The thought of my credit card on file and them pinging it for $1k for one isn't real appealing to me.

My mother in law was telling me about the program in the Twin Cities when we were in town for the fair. My wife and I took some time at the eco building at the MN state fair checking out the bikes. They looked pretty awesome actually. Its great you are supporting this and it wouldn't be hard to get your money's worth out if it if you used it a few times. I just checked out the BCycle program online because I was curious. If I ever travel to a city I should check out if I could get one of these bikes to get around in addition to a public transportation pass. that could make getting around alot easier and bike share programs like this might have come in handy when my wife and I were walking around seeing the sights in DC and Chicago.

I've looked at DC's, but have a bit of an issue with full liability on the bike if someone steals it. DC's a high theft bike town. The thought of my credit card on file and them pinging it for $1k for one isn't real appealing to me.

Probably the way I would use it most often (and the way they encourage you to use it) would be to only ride from kiosk to kiosk. They're all over town. That way you're only responsible for it while you're riding. Once you place it in a kiosk the bike is no longer your responsibility.

A good example was a few weeks ago when I took my car to work so I could run some errands over lunch. I ended up working pretty late but took a break to swim at the "Y". It's in a different part of downtown and would have been a long walk. Retrieving my car from the parking lot to drive there wasn't very appealing either. I found myself really wishing I had my bike but I didn't. So I went ahead and got a $5 day pass for the bike share.

There's a kiosk less than a block from my building and one right outside the "Y". So I rode there, put the bike in the kiosk and swam my laps. On the way back, I grabbed another bike out of the kiosk and rode it to my building.