05 April 2016

Free Bikes To The Polls

Since February began, 32 US States have held primaries or caucuses to determine who the Democratic and Republican parties will nominate as their Presidential candidates.

Today Wisconsin will join them.  The Badger State is also holding elections for State Supreme Court justice as well as a number of local offices.

Commentators have lamented the relatively low voter turnout thus far in other primaries and elections.  Campaign workers for all of the candidates have tried all sorts of things to encourage people to go to the polls.  

Bublr bikes in Milwaukee
Bublr bikes in Milwaukee


Kevin Hardman has, perhaps, one possible solution.  He is the executive director of Bublr, Milwaukee's bike share program.  Today, he announced, everyone in the city is entitled to one free 30-minute ride on a Bublr bike.  To redeem it, a rider has to enter the code "1848" (the year of Wisconsin's founding) at any Bublr station.  As with most bike share programs, a credit card is needed to check out a bike; rides over 30 minutes will cost $3 for each additional 30 minutes.

According to Hardman, eight of Bublr's 28 stations are located within two blocks of a polling station.  The other twenty, he says, are "convenient" to places where people can vote.

So let's see...The bikes are blue.  Who do you think cyclists will vote for?

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