Why San Francisco's luxury 'hipster buses' went bust

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/oct/16/why-san-francisco-hipster-buses-bust-bankruptcy

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The best city stories from around the web this week explore why San Francisco’s Leap bus service went bankrupt so soon after launching – and why a church in Washington DC is protesting a new protected bike lane. We also take a look at the strange atmosphere of a Georgian seaside city and a vision of Sydney where bikes rule. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories: just share your thoughts in the comments below.

The failure of hipster buses

When San Francisco’s private bus service Leap started earlier this year, many criticised its high fares and resulting exclusivity. The service became known for its “hipster buses” mostly used by the monied Silicon Valley workers living in the city.

But Leap filed for bankruptcy in July. Their vehicles are now up for auction. Writing in the New York Times, Farhad Manjoo investigates the death of the service – what went wrong and why:

Leap, in retrospect, was a bold idea that might have had legs. Muni, San Francisco’s public bus system, is overloaded and underfunded, and the success of ride-hailing apps like Uber suggests a public willingness to try new tech-enabled options. But in its design and marketing – in its full-frontal embrace of the easily pilloried paleo-snack-bar techie lifestyle – Leap exuded a kind of bourgeoisie exceptionalism that fed into the city’s fears of gentrification and won it few fans. As I stood inside the abandoned buses, it became obvious why the start-up failed: Leap was created by and for techies. It was born inside the bubble, and it could never escape.

Bikes v church

We’ve seen a big backlash against proposed bike lanes – from car drivers to local businesses. This week, however, a church in Washington DC stated that a proposed bike lane would infringe upon its constitutional “rights of religious freedom”. As Perry Stein writes in the Washington Post:

The parking loss would place an unconstitutionally undue burden on people who want to pray, the church argues, noting that other churches already have fled to the suburbs because of onerous parking restrictions ... ‘As you know, bicycles have freely and safely traversed the District of Columbia throughout the 90-year history of the United House of Prayer, without any protected bicycle lanes and without infringing in the least on the United House of Prayer’s religious rights,’ the letter states.

A similar situation took place previously in the city, when another church objected to a proposed protected bike lane because of concerns around parking. In the end, the city agreed to make the bike lane unprotected outside the church building. Safety first, right?

Bizarre Batumi

“Las Vegas on the Black Sea” is how former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili envisaged the transformation of Batumi, a port city in the southwest of the country. As a result, the city became known for its novelty and showy architecture: the large double helix structure of the Alphabetic Tower, a hotel designed in the style of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, a development recreating Madrid’s Plaza Mayor and a building resembling an upside-down White House. Saakashvili also planned a fountain flowing with alcohol.

But, as Tara Isabella Burton writes in Roads and Kingdoms, the fountain is dry and the Alphabetic Tower is structurally unstable. Planned developments like the Trump Tower never broke ground after Saakashvili lost power – others remain half-built. “For every erected hotel, there is a derelict site, or one whose posted computer-renderings change abruptly and without warning ... But that doesn’t stop Batumi. The city’s energy, like that of its one-time champion, is relentless.”

Cycle Sydney

Designers in Sydney have imagined what the city would be like if it was totally designed around bikes. “The city of the future should not have infrastructure for cycling, it should be infrastructure for cycling,” writes Steven Fleming, director of Cycle Space, an urban design organisation which prioritises cycling. Fast Co Exist explains how his cycle-oriented vision of a rebuilt Sydney works – with a new network of bike lanes that extend into apartment buildings – and shares a gallery of visualisations of a cyclist’s urban paradise.

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