Spinlister, the Airbnb for bikes, is blowing up, according to SFGate. With about 2,000 bikes available around the Bay Area, it allows out-of-towners or otherwise bike-free people a chance to roam about, while giving bike owners a bit of passive income, sometimes enough to pay for the bike.
The first time I spoke with anyone at Spinlister, in 2012, they referred to what they do as “collaborative consumption,” which struck me as a much more honest term than “sharing economy.” However, the SFGate article stated that Spinlister used the motto, “Move over, Bay Area Bike Share,” which sounds pretty arrogant. So I spoke with Marcelo Loureiro, Spinlister’s CEO and “Re-Founder” (he bought out the original team in 2013, after an unsuccessful rebranding), who claimed that this was never their motto. “We really don’t see public bike shares as competitors,” he said. “They are good in instant transportation from Point A to Point B, and we are perfect for people who love cycling, casual or professional riders, and people going from beach cruisers to hybrids to explore the city.”
As with any still-newish startup, possibly the biggest drawback is that the available bikes (and skis and surfboards, which Spinlister also rents) are mostly contained in a very predictable zone: north of Cesar Chavez, and west of Twin Peaks and Arguello Blvd., with the numbers dropping around Golden Gate Park and in Oakland.
In other ride-sharing developments, AutoNews reported today that even after years of lobbying San Francisco City Hall, BMW is having a tough time starting up its car-sharing program. This one is modeled after Car2Go or DriveNow, where you return your all-electric BMW coupe by parking it on the street (as opposed to ZipCar, where the cars go back to specially marked spaces). Initially, Mayor Lee's administration favored the idea, but has since thrown up roadblocks. Specifically, the city won’t issue BMW a “superpermit” exempting the cars from parking meters and lettered area restrictions, nor did it include BMW and other “one-way sharing” programs in a pilot project designed to test the viability of dedicated street parking spaces for shared cars.
In other words, our transit-first policy, having weathered Prop L two months ago, seems intact as San Francisco’s streets fill up with bikes and not with BMWs. Sometimes, I think we’re going to be all right.
[Via SFGate/Automotive News, image from Thinkstock]
Got a tip for The Bold Italic? Email tips@thebolditalic.com.