Metro Bikeshare arrives in Pasadena

I have to write about my experience with Metro's bikeshare. I was totally pumped to try out the new docking station right in front of Pasadena City College, since I'll be teaching there again in the fall.  Here's what happened...

(1) I bought a 1 month pass online using a TAP card I already had.  A day later, I saw all the codes for one month free and felt like an idiot for paying.  ooops!

(2) It was easy to walk up to the kiosk, which sent a code to my phone, and borrow a bike.

(3) The bike was so heavy, the first thing I did was drop it.  ooops!

(4) I didn't realize the front basket was hinged.  It looked REALLY small and my bookbag didn't fit and I thought "Why did they equip these with such a pathetically small basket?"  Only upon returning the bike did I realize that I could've expanded the basket and fit my entire bag in there.  ooops!

(5) After I started pedaling, I had to stop twice to adjust the seat height.  I ended up leaving it at a 7, even though that was a wee bit too high for me.  The bike was SLOW and I wanted as much leverage as I could get. And I stopped in the middle of Del Mar Blvd to adjust the seat.  ooops!

(6) Then I realized that I had no idea where I was going.  I had no plan.  I didn't know where the bicycle network was.  I was rolling on a bike that wasn't mine through city streets with moving traffic and the bike was SLOW, did I mention that?  I wasn't lost, it just wasn't easy to locate preferred bicycle routes so I made a loop on streets with no bicycle infrastructure.  ooops!

HERE is where you can find/return Metro Bikeshare bikes

(7) Along Del Mar Blvd, some cars/trucks/vans didn't want to give me 3 feet.  Scary!  And even more scary to be on an unfamiliar and SLOW bike.  It's really hard to keep up with the speed of traffic.  Honestly I felt the safest on Walnut when I was taking the lane.  I guess it's OK that the bike is slow since I wasn't wearing a helmet, but a car could still have hit me going fast and I could have died.  ooops!

(8) Before arriving to Bikeshare, I read "Generally speaking, there are relatively few bike lanes on the busy arterial streets in Pasadena but there are some pretty mellow residential streets that are great for riding. If using Google Maps to navigate, you may enjoy taking a route that is a little longer but uses quieter residential streets." So I took one. But El Molino was as terrifying or possibly more so than the arterial because there was not enough space for cars to pass safely.   ooops!

(9) I was looking for stations to return the bike, but I didn't see any until I was back where I started. https://bikeshare.metro.net/stations/  Maybe a person has to get used to the network and where the stations are, and this familiarity will come with time, but I couldn't return that bike soon enough.  I was looking everywhere for a docking station.   ooops!

@bikemetro #Pasadena not smiling because this was a terrifying experience. Video to follow.

A post shared by bikecar101 (@bikecar101) on Jul 14, 2017 at 5:03pm PDT

(10) I'm confused... As for some ideas about how to use Metro Bike in Pasadena and where to ride: •Gold Line Allen Station to Pasadena City College — If you don’t want to ride on busy Allen, take the bike lane on Maple to Sierra Bonita to campus.
I don't see a bikeshare station at Gold Line/Allen, but I do see one at Gold Line/Lake.   ooops!

I'm not saying you should't try Metro Bikeshare for yourself... definitely try it.  But I do feel like Bikeshare is better suited to a bike path (Waterfront), like down by the beach.  When you don't have the infrastructure on your streets, it's just unsafe.  Maybe the map on The Source's website could be somehow attached to the bicycle or posted on the kiosk so that people can more easily locate a safe bike route.

It's kind of crazy to me that Metro is suggesting you use Google Maps to navigate when there's no place to put your phone.  Maybe if the bike had a built-in smartphone cradle, that would make sense.  It's hard enough to manage navigating an unfamiliar bike in an unfamiliar place.  Add to that navigating from a phone that you have to hold in your hand... that's a recipe for an accident.

Since I have a month pass, I'll try it again (maybe Downtown LA).  What I've been saying since the beginning of Bikeshare's launch is that it's safer to take your own bike.  It's cheaper too.  $20 x 5 will get you your own bike.  $20 x 30 will get you a pretty good bike.  I find it hard to see how bikeshare fills a gaping hole in the transit network.  And I fear that when/if Metro offers bikeshare ubiquitously they will try to ban bikes on trains.