Opinion

Questions abound for B-Cycle

Strictly on optics, we like San Antonio B-Cycle.

We’ve seen many a B-Cycle rider cruising down the Mission Reach trail, scoping out the wildflowers, feeling the breeze in their hair, enjoying our fine city on two wheels. It’s a great way for residents and visitors to get around town, and, for many, a pleasant reintroduction to the joys of riding bikes. We’d like to see more helmets on B-Cycle riders, but that’s another editorial for another day.

In the sense that B-Cycle adds to San Antonio’s quality of life, City Council’s recent decision to help San Antonio Bike Share, the cash-strapped nonprofit that runs B-Cycle, with $121,500 of support is commendable. San Antonio is a better place with B-Cycle. But we do have questions.

For starters, this request for city help came as a result of an opportunity for B-Cycle to expand. Thanks to grant funding, it has the chance to add 200 bikes and 20 stations (where riders can check out and return bikes) across town, Express-News reporter Drew Joseph has outlined. But here’s the catch: If B-Cycle lands this grant funding to expand, it doesn’t have the financial resources for the additional operations and maintenance.

Pursuing this grant funding, then, strikes us as potentially putting the cart before the horse. Is B-Cycle taking on more than it can handle?

We also have questions about what efforts B-Cycle is taking to land a corporate sponsor or expand its fundraising. In the past, B-Cycle staff have likened the nonprofit to public transportation, which taxpayers subsidize. But the analogy only goes so far. Yes, riding a bike is an alternative to driving a car, but B-Cycle is not a public entity such as VIA Metropolitan Transit, and it certainly is not operating citywide, nor is it publicly accountable.

Providing B-Cycle with a small amount of city support so the organization can take a collective breath and develop a sustainable long-term strategy is a good investment, one that makes sense. Making this a recurring city taxpayer investment, though, would be a mistake.