Yellow, green and orange bikes have seemingly popped up around the city of Seattle, like mushrooms appearing overnight.

Most are found in the center of the city and around the university, but the bikes are also widely used around Alki beach and in West Seattle and Ballard.

Seattle is the first major city in the U.S. to pilot a program that permits these free-floating bikes.

Miller, manager of the bike share program for Seattle Department of Transportation, discussed the matter with the West Seattle Transportation Coalition at its March meeting on Thursday, March 22 at Neighborhood House High Point Center, 6400 Sylvan Way SW.

The bike share concept first came to Seattle with Pronto, a program that kept bicycles in stations, where individuals could check them out and use them. Miller explained that the stations were mainly housed in the center of the city, and there were about 500 available bicycles.

Pronto failed last April, and Miller said there were a number of reasons why it did not work.

The failure of the program, however, left Seattle open for an experiment.

Miller explained that in China, bike share followed a whole different system. Instead of being anchored to stations, private companies made rentable bikes more readily available.

A few companies were looking for cities to pilot a similar program in the U.S.

“Seattle was ripe ground,” Miller said. “It was actually one of the only cities that didn’t have a bike share.”

There were no competing stationary bike share companies. Seattle opened its doors to three companies – ofo, LimeBike and Spin -- with free-standing rentable bicycles for a citywide pilot program.

The pilot launched last summer. “In this system, you take a bike from where you find it and leave it where you want,” Miller said. “There are rules where you should leave it, but the key word is ‘should.’”

An advantage is that residents can access the bikes without having to find a station. The disadvantage is that bikes are not always parked the way the companies requested, Miller said.

Still, the whole city of Seattle was served immediately, since the location of a station was not involved in the discussion.

The pilot started with 500 bikes. Today, the number has risen to 10,000.

And inviting three companies to compete naturally led to innovation, Miller added.

The companies are also paying the city fees to cover any expenditures. “This is effectively no cost to the city,” Miller said.

Now, the city is working with the University of Washington to assess the program.

“This have never been done before,” Miller said. “Whatever we did was going to be experimental.”

In the meantime, the companies hold their permits to operate in Seattle until the end of the year. “Then, we’ll see what the next, if any, iteration of bike share will look like,” Miller said.

The city is also working to determine the impacts the bike share model could have on individuals with disabilities, especially those with vision impairments, Miller said.

In addition, he said, the city is looking for ways to assure that the program is equitable. “We know this is going to be an ongoing discussion,” he said. “This will be something that we’re regularly revisiting.”

West Seattle Transportation Coalition chair Michael Taylor-Judd asked if there is a way to penalize companies for bikes that are not parked properly.

He pointed to complaints in China, especially where bicycles are carelessly tossed aside.

“That does seem to be happening here,” Taylor-Judd said. “There are certain things the company should notice.”

He also mentioned that some individuals are bringing the bikes into buildings, making them inaccessible to others who may want to use them.

“We need to get them back out to the street,” Taylor-Judd said. “It seems like there are some pretty extreme examples we could rein in on."

Miller said there are a number of possible solutions to any bike share related issues.

For example, the department of transportation has just launched designated parking spots for the bikes in Ballard.

For more information, visit www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-prog….