Losers & Winners

According to one op ed writer in the Daily Bruin, the UCLA bike sharing program is losing to competition from Bird and other scooters. Casual observation by anyone who frequents the campus suggests it is true:

...UCLA started its Bruin Bike Share program last year in an effort to provide affordable transportation to students on and around campus. UCLA said in November, a month after the program had launched, that initial participation in the program had exceeded its expectations: It expected to sell 425 monthly or yearly memberships and ended up selling 498.

Bruin Bike Share’s circumstances have soured since then. The membership number has fallen to about 300 members as of April, said Katherine Alvarado, a UCLA spokesperson. The university is now spending $80,000 per year, on top of the fees paid by the bike share users, to fund a program that continues to lose popularity.

Students are turning away from UCLA’s clunky bikes to the next generation of transportation on campus: electric scooters. Electric scooters from companies like Bird and LimeBike have found their way into students’ hearts and have become ubiquitous on and around campus...

Full op ed at http://dailybruin.com/2018/04/27/omar-said-decision-to-expand-bruin-bike-share-fails-to-acknowledge-program-falls-flat/

Anyway, that's the word: