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Portland's Alta Bicycle Share was contracted by New York City to run Citi Bike, the nation's largest bike-sharing program. The Citi Bike system launched in May. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Already a year behind schedule, Portland's highly anticipated $4 million bike-sharing system is facing further delays.

In fact, the sudden bankruptcy of Bixi, the company used by Portland-based Alta Bicycle Share to provide the high-tech bikes and stations, may have scrapped any chance of the local program starting up in 2014.

"We're uncertain as all get out," said Commissioner Steve Novick, who oversees the Portland Bureau of Transportation, on Monday.

In late January, after years of providing bicycles and stations for Alta on bike-sharing systems around North America, Montreal-based Bixi filed for bankruptcy. The company reportedly paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses to executives and employees before filing for protection from its creditors.

Alta, run by former Portland city employee Mia Birk, has since partnered with 8D Technologies, the company that developed the technology powering Bixi systems. Alta already contracts with several cities, including New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., to run bike-sharing systems.



However, the city officials in Portland, as well as Vancouver, B.C., say they won't sign the final agreement with Alta until it can provide an iron-clad business plan.

No one was answering the phones at Alta's Portland offices on Monday. A message left for Birk was not returned.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7847539/"&amp;amp;amp;gt;If bike-sharing comes to Portland, would you be interested in using the system to get around town?&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

In the last year, Alta has also been hit with technology and labor problems connected to its myriad bike-share contracts.



Before the city commits to bike-sharing, Novick said, "We're waiting to see what happens."

After years of study, the City Council voted in 2012 to use $4 million in startup funds -- half from a limited, flexible federal funding pot, half from private investors -- for the automated community bicycling program. The plan was approved by Metro.

Expected to open in Spring 2013, the Portland bike-sharing project would be nothing like the Yellow Bicycle loaner program that left abandoned and vandalized bikes littering the city in the 1990s.

It works more like car-sharing services such as Zipcar and Car2Go. With dozens of bike-sharing stations around the city, commuters will be able to drive or take TriMet to work downtown and check out specially designed bikes for short trips and lunchtime errands.

Different pricing structures are being discussed, but city planners say the service is expected to be very economical -- with an annual membership getting the first 30 minutes free. Bike sharers don't have to return their rides to the same spot. They can check them back in to any station in the city.

Initially, Portland's 75 sharing stations would be in the central city and some pilot stations, possibly in Hillsdale, Multnomah Village and along the MAX Yellow Line on North Interstate Avenue.

Making the situation even more frustrating, PBOT says, is the fact that it is on the verge of inking more than one corporate sponsorship.

Those deals are on hold until City Hall is confident that the new bike vendor is financially sound and won't suffer the same fate of Bixi, leaving Portland with dozens of unsupported rental stations.

"We're leaning more on the private sector than almost any bike-share system in North America," said PBOT spokesman Dylan Rivera.

Alta has provided some options for ways the city could launch bike share this year, "but the city is trying to use an abundance of caution," Rivera said.

At the same time, Dan Bower, manager of PBOT's active transportation division, is optimistic that bike-sharing will come to Bike City U.S.A. If not this year, then in 2015.

"There are a lot of moving parts," Bower said. "The politics and funding need to come together. So, no, I'm not surprised (that the project is running behind schedule). The emphasis is on doing things right."

Indeed, he said, if PBOT had rushed the plan through the City Council to get the Bixi bikes on the street, there would be a lot of anxiety about millions of dollars already spent.

"I'm still confident it will happen," Novick said, "if not this year then next year."

Of course, there's more than one way for a city to make money off bike-sharing.

As the Chicago Tribune found, the Windy City's new Divvy bike share raked in about $2.5 million in user fees during its first five months, with about $703,500 coming from late fees imposed on users who didn't return their rented rides on time.

-- Joseph Rose