Many people bought annual memberships for Pronto Cycle Share before the city announced the decision to shut it down March 31. So what happens to those memberships?
Originally, the city had planned a new bike share system using e-assist bikes, and Pronto members would have been offered the choice of a pro-rated refund or credit in the new system. But Mayor Ed Murray scrapped plans for the new system before details were even shared with the City Council.
So now there’s only one option left: All members will have remaining balances credited to their cards on file automatically once the system shuts down (so make sure your card info is up-to-date). And that’s it. No more Pronto.
Here’s the text of the member email:
Dear Pronto Members,
As previously communicated, Pronto Cycle Share will cease operations at the end of the day on March 31, 2017. Today we’d like to provide you with some more information about the annual membership refund process, which will begin shortly after system closure.
All annual members with an expiration date after the system closure date of March 31, 2017 will receive a pro-rated refund based on the remaining time on their annual membership. The refund will be calculated based on the number of days remaining on your membership, divided by 365, multiplied by the amount you originally paid. The resulting amount will be credited to your credit card on file. Please review your credit card information in the Member Portal to be sure it is up to date.
Information in the Member Portal will be available through April 15, 2017. If you wish to review or download any trip data or other data in the member portal, please do so before this date. We expect all refunds to be processed by the end of April.
Thank you for your support of bike share in Seattle. It has been a joy to provide a sustainable and affordable transportation option to Seattle residents, workers, and visitors for the past two years.
Comments
5 responses to “Pronto will refund remainder of outstanding memberships after March 31 shutdown”
Ed Murray needs to go. Pronto.
One thing neither Pronto nor the city did in connection with the city takeover, the attempt to replace it and the decision to shut down was to reach out to Pronto users and determine what it was that we (as I am one) found useful in the system, what characteristics of us could be used to identify others similarly situated and to improve the system. Instead there were experts and consultants (the same kind of people who got us here).
And of course no one thought about what the demise of the system would do to those of us who did use it.
I put this on the mayor, too. I’m a voter.
What’s going to happen to all of the on-street Pronto stations when the system shuts down? I’m not talking about the equipment — the racks, the kiosks, the helmet bins — which presumably will be removed and mothballed. I mean the actual street area that the Pronto stuff occupied.
It would be a shame to let these revert to car parking spots, but I fear that’s what would happen by default. How do we ensure that the Pronto equipment gets replaced with (high quality!) public bike parking?
Do you really need to park you bike in the street?
The footprint of a Pronto station makes me think of a particular feature of public bike parking that we don’t have much of here: rain cover!
The silliest missing rain cover I know of is probably the Fremont leaf rack, which looks like cover but isn’t. And then there are all these new buildings with bike racks that are almost covered by awnings or overhangs, but not quite. It would be cool if some of these were corrected! Of course, a lot of public racks are on sidewalks where it might not be appropriate to add a covered structure. But Pronto stations have reserved footprints.
Downtown it helps that many parking garages offer covered bike parking… but it’s not obvious where they are as you pass by, so you have to plan ahead. Converted Pronto stations would be visible from the street, like bike corrals, which are certainly well used in places…