Citibikes hits a bump

City officials said they expect a $1.5-million loss on Bixi this year because of restructuring. Still, Coderre said, he believes the service can be viable.

Bixi said cash-flow problems began when it tried to develop new proprietary technology for international clients.

Persistent delays and problems with the technology prompted many clients to withhold payments — Chicago and New York refused to pay out $5.6 million to Bixi because of the prolonged snags in the development of each city's bike-sharing service.

The STM, Montreal's public transit authority, would not comment on today's announcement.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bixi-owes-50m-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-1.2503974

How did things get so bad, in a seeming boomtime for urban bike shares? Though Bixi has been in financial trouble for years (Montreal spent $108 million to bail it out in 2011), this new wrinkle stems from a January 15th letter from the city, demanding that Bixi repay a debt. Bixi was unable to comply, partially because cities that use its technology—like New York and Chicago—are refusing to pay their own debts. Why? Because they're upset about Bixi's glitchy, slow software updates. "They are not happy with delays in promised updates in back-end software," explains the Gazette. New York City reportedly owes Bixi $3 million, while Chicago owes $2.6 million

http://gizmodo.com/the-bikeshare-company-behind-citibike-is-facing-bankrup-1505372630

Yeah, I think the technology in the Paris bike system is a lot better. Everytime I try to take out a Citibike, there is always something wrong...but Citibike is much better than what existed before it, which is nothing!

PBSC/Bixi is apparently still dealing with fallout from a divorce from their original technology provider -- this has been brewing for a while and was a major factor in the NYC rollout delays. They dumped a supplier called 8D a few years ago without having a ready replacement, and then got sued by 8D.

It's like Apple replacing Google Maps with Apple Maps on iPhones, but Bixi apparently is still flubbing the new tech platform and doesn't have financial resources to pull through an extended rough patch.

This isn't directly a reflection of the individual systems' popularity or cash-flow (e.g. CitiBike), but longer term it could impact their operational and perhaps financial condition if PBSC/Bixi disappears as their equipment supplier.

I just hope this doesn't mean that the NYC tax-payer winds up subsidizing the system. Bixi probably under-priced the service and now can't deliver what was promised.

Riversider
about 10 hours ago
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I just hope this doesn't mean that the NYC tax-payer winds up subsidizing the system. Bixi probably under-priced the service and now can't deliver what was promised.

Oh no!

Riversider, are you an ex-writer for the Daily News?