Bids Now Being Accepted To Run Philly's Bike Share System

Philadelphia's bike share system takes another big step today. The City has issued the RFP to companies interested in designing and running the system. The City is moving pretty quick here: final questions are due November 1st, and final proposals are due November 26th.

We realize our blog is read mostly by industry folks with the technical expertise and business acumen to run major metropolitan bike share systems. So to that massive audience, we want to issue a challenge:

Let's make Philadelphia the first city in the world with a bike share system built on Penny-farthings.

Could this be Philly's bike share bike? How great would that be?

Talk about competitive advantage! Some of the obvious reasons that come to mind just now, thinking about it for like two seconds:

• Parts cannot be adapted to other bikes, deterring theft.
• Strong support from the dentist and orthodontic communities.
• Inject much-needed life into Philadelphia's artisanal tweed manufacturing sector.
• "Philadelphia: Best Balance in America!" Catchy, isn't it? We can't stop thinking about it.
• Namesake corporate sponsors want their brand out there. And it will be very obvious, painfully obvious even, when someone is trying to ride a bike share bike.

Anyhow, the RFP is up, which means that companies with experience running bike sharing systems can bid on the contract to run ours. We will keep you posted as we move closer, ever closer, to a city-changing bike sharing system.