Will bike share succeed in Austin?
Show me the money.
New Police Chief
Well, nobody was jazzed about the guy from Milwaukee, so the city manager took some extra time and went with the lady from Cincinnati. From KUT:
Lisa Davis, an assistant chief with Cincinnati’s police force, has been chosen to take over the Austin Police Department, City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced Friday morning.
“I have elected to move Chief Davis forward for confirmation by the City Council as she has a stellar record in her extensive career in law enforcement,” he said in a statement, “and I am confident that she will earn the trust and confidence of our Austin Police officers and our community.”
...Davis joined the Cincinnati Police Department in 1992, working a beat downtown. She served in different leadership roles before being named assistant police chief in February 2020. She has also been a police chief finalist for Cincinnati and Toledo over the last two years.
Council needs to approve Davis' hiring, but it doesn't look like there are any signs of pushback. I don't have many thoughts on this at the moment. I will come up with some in the days to come.
Running the numbers on Cap Metro's new bike share service
Two weeks ago, Cap Metro launched a new era of bike sharing in Austin. Bikeshare has been around for years, but the newest iteration, CapMetro Bikeshare, is distinct and hopefully better in a couple important ways.
The predecessor service, MetroBike, was owned by the city of Austin and operated by a nonprofit, Austin Bikeshare. It boasted a fleet of roughly 500 bikes –– about 200 of which were electric –– at 82 stations around downtown and the UT campus.
The new iteration is overseen by Cap Metro, which contracts with a major private sector vendor to manage the fleet, the stations and software.
The new service consists entirely of e-bikes. Cap Metro's Diego Martinez-Moncada, who oversees the program, told me in an interview last week that there are currently 150 bikes at 52 stations, but that the agency plans to ramp up to 490 bikes at 76 stations within the next couple months.
So far, so good...
