San Francisco based Spin has recently signed a deal to bring bike sharing to the suburbs of Miami Dade County, specifically the cities of Doral and Miami Lakes where they intend to deploy 100 bicycles in each of their communities. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Both Doral and Miami Lakes aren’t really “cities” so much as developed suburbs. While bike sharing programs have done well in downtown Miami, Miami Beach and in the crowded urban centers heading north through Broward and Palm Beach counties we’re a bit skeptical of programs in less populous more spread out areas, not just in Florida in other suburbs.
In a recent article posted to BizJournals “We’ve engaged with every municipality to explore their interest in using bikesharing as an amenity for their residents and a possible solution to first- and last-mile issues, and I will say that Mayor Cid in Miami Lakes and Mayor Bermudez in Doral were full-throated supporters and embraced the concept of bikesharing early on,” said Spin’s local spokesman, Daniel Diaz Leyva.”
It appears that the program is a test pilot, so we’ll see how it goes after the term expires and whether it lives up to expectations.
