"Yet city transportation officials say they did not know that Motivate was placing an arbitration clause in the BikeTown contract."

Either PBOT failed to have a city attorney review the contract before agreeing to it, or the attorney didn't flag the clause as an issue. Either way, unacceptable.

And, this should serve as a great example of why the private sector should be used judiciously in the provision of public services. Services aren't intended to be profit-making endeavors. Doesn't mean they should be inefficient.