Richard Rosen is talking about a revolution. It starts with a folding bike.
Rosen, president of Bigfish Bikes, was at Metro on Tuesday, pitching his company's product – not just as a $600 purchase for Portland commuters, but as part of an integrated network designed to get people to rent Bigfish products with ease.
In a one-hour presentation to about 10 staff members from Metro and one from TriMet, Rosen talked about an ambitious approach to getting people on bikes – primarily by making it hard to avoid finding one to rent.
At a hotel? Rent a Bigfish bike from your room. Just get to town? Rent a bike at the airport. On your way to work, which inconveniently is nowhere near a transit stop? Rent a bike when you get off your bus or train, and pedal the last mile.
Bigfish, based in Portland, has so far focused most of its energy on putting bikes in at transit hubs in the Los Angeles area. According to an engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, the project has been delayed until 2013 while it undergoes scrutiny from the federal government.
Cribbing the concept from car share programs like Zipcar, Bigfish would offer bikes for rent at hubs in Southern California.
"A centralized portal will be the key for Los Angeles," Rosen said. Using the Internet or even a telephone hotline to find bikes is part of the system.
A rent-as-needed program has the potential to reach more consumers than a bike for sale, even if the bike is in the right price range.
"I want it to be a no-brainer for you to do it (rent a bike)," Rosen said. "The going rate to rent a bike is $28 a day. I think it's high."
He said he's pushing $10 to $12.50 per bike rental per day.
But Stefan Hadley, the rental manager at Portland's Waterfront Bikes, said it would be hard to maintain a fleet of rentals at that price point.
"Just on the labor on them, $10 to $15 a day is not going to cover that," he said. On summer days when all of the store's 130 bikes are rented out, at least five come back needing major repair and another 10 or so will have flat tires, Hadley said.
Waterfront rents out Bigfish bikes for $40 a day.
Even at $30 a day, though, Rosen argues it would be hard to get people away from combustion engines.
"If you rent a car for $75, how much are you willing to spend on a bike for two?" Rosen said.
The notion has grabbed the attention of the Clinton Global Initiative, and former President Clinton's foundation has tabbed Rosen as its so-called Chair for Human Power.
Back in Portland, it also caught the attention of Pam Peck, a planning manager at Metro.
"We need to help commuters make that last mile connection," she said. "Throughout the region, those last-mile connections can be challenging."