"ford gobikes are gross" is a sentiment i share but it's not a coherent materialist analysis; it risks sliding into reactionary praxis

the fundamental problem with these bikeshare programs is the privatization of public space. bike shares in abstract would be unambiguously good for the communities they're in, but the harm of private enclosure outweighs that good. the solution to this one isn't to destroy the bikes but to socialize the program, to bring it under democratic control by the community it serves

@morganastra yeah Seattle tried that. unfortunately the director had a weird scratch back relationship with the bike vendor and it was set up badly. now we have companies doing it all, funded by VC money. tbh though I totally hear you about the privatization of public space.

@pnathan if it is run by private companies they are certainly not doing it well, even if the problems are not yet visible without an analysis

@pnathan also note that the situation you are describing is just "city-owned" not "socialized" which is an important difference here. in a socialized program a corrupt director would at the very least be subject to democratic recall, and probably would never exist in the first place