Kyle Rowe was still an undergrad at UW when he started working for SDOT. In a few short years, he would make himself indispensable to the department, take a career risk on a doomed bike share program and somehow turn it into a success that caught the world’s attention.
Rowe is the SDOT staffer most responsible for Seattle’s role in launching this new free-floating bike share boom that is spreading across the nation. During the launch celebration for LimeBike, CEO Toby Sun told the crowd to give Rowe a hand because “he is literally writing the rules other cities are following from a blank Word doc.” The pilot permit rules Seattle is using have become the basis for allowing the legal and responsible operation of these bikes in a U.S. city.
Rowe recently left SDOT to work for Spin. His job now is to take what Seattle learned to other cities across the country (ethics rules require that he not work with the City of Seattle for a couple years).
“I want to get it right,” said Rowe, explaining why he left SDOT to work on a national level for a private bike share company. Rowe believes that cities developing good rules for bike share are vital for the services to succeed in the U.S. So his job is kind of funny in that he is essentially going to cities and lobbying them to regulate the company he works for (as well as their competitors). But creating a fair playing field for companies that is designed with the good of cities and its residents in mind is the best path to success for this new model of bike share, he said.
“I could have stayed at SDOT my entire career,” he said. “Startups are going to continue to disrupt. Knowing that business will help me help SDOT or another agency” if he some day returns to the public sector. Rowe will continue living in Seattle, though his job now sends him flying all over the country.
Did I mention that Rowe just turned 28 a few weeks ago? (more…)
