Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Around the Block

Seattle Just Canned Its Bike-Share System. What Went Wrong?

Mayor Ed Murray testing out a Pronto bike in happier times. Photo: SDOT via Seattle Transit Blog

With Seattle's three-year-old bike-share system, Pronto, struggling to attract riders and make ends meet, Mayor Ed Murray announced last Friday that he's going to scrap it.

The city had been contemplating an expansion that would have roughly doubled the size of the system and added e-bikes supplied by Bewegen, a supplier with major question marks (it's the descendant of Montreal-based Bixi, which went bankrupt in 2014). But Murray shifted course and will wind down the system, redirecting the $5 million in expansion funds to Safe Routes to School projects and other investments in safe walking and biking, reports Zach Shaner at Seattle Transit Blog.

Local bike advocates applauded the funding for safe streets, but scrapping Pronto has Tom Fucoloro at Seattle Bike Blog wondering if "the well may be poisoned for bike share" in the city.

If Seattle is going to give bike-share another try, it will have to learn from this experience. The Pronto system started off small and never scaled up. The network had about 50 stations, and they were spaced too far apart and in non-contiguous areas, limiting the trips people could make.

And as Shaner noted last year at Seattle Transit Blog, the city's mandatory helmet law was clearly a hindrance:

Though controversial within the cycling community and a guarantee of a comment flame war, there is simply no doubting the empirical reality that our rare all-ages helmet law adds a barrier to ridership and drags down performance. Seattle may have its dangers, but if Manhattan can be safe for millions without a helmet law, so can Seattle.

Again, if we value mandatory helmets over spontaneous ridership, that is a value choice we are free to make, but then we similarly must reduce our ridership expectations.

The good news is that Murray will be accelerating the city's investment in bike infrastructure. If he uses that $5 million to fill gaps in Seattle's bike network, people on bikes will be safer and the city will be in a better position when it takes another stab at bike-share.

More recommended reading today: City Observatory and Bike Pittsburgh remember Martin Luther King's unfinished legacy fighting for justice in transportation. And the Frontier Group points out that even as the gas tax has produced smaller and smaller returns for transportation, federal officials have been spending ever more money on highways -- crowding out funding for other national priorities.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday Video: An ‘Oh the Urbanity’/Streetfilms Montréal Mashup

Find out why the City of a Hundred Steeples is so magnifique.

September 12, 2025

Sharing Is Caring for Friday’s Headlines

Young adults are driving less, and that may have something to do with the rise of shared micromobility devices.

September 12, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: This Boat is Doing Something Amazing for Transit!

Could a simple sale of old train cars inspire a new generation of transit fans down in Lima, Peru? It's all part of a very special edition of our podcast.

September 11, 2025

In Trade Deal With Trump, Europe Sells Out its Pedestrians

The new trade deal between the European Union and the U.S. means that pedestrians from Lisbon to Helsinki will be endangered by big, American-made trucks.

September 11, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines Are Day Trippers

It took me so long to find out one-way streets are bad, but I found out.

September 11, 2025

How Chicago Cyclists Are Protecting Immigrants During Trump’s ICE Crackdown

Bike riders are notifying residents who may be at risk of what Mayor Brandon Johnson recently called "militarized immigration enforcement without due process."

September 10, 2025
See all posts