Bay Area Bike Share is one of the least-used systems in US, costs $5k per bike
I&#x27;ve been in SF again (temporarily) for the last 3 months and getting the Bay Area Bike Share annual membership was one of the first things I did.  At $88 &#x2F; year, it paid for itself after the first 20 round-trips vs. taking Muni.<p>Pros:<p>For my particular commute (home to Caltrain &amp; back 2-3x a week) it has worked great - there&#x27;s a rack across the street from home and two adjacent to Caltrain.<p>Perhaps due to the alleged low ridership, I have only had two instances of not finding available bikes; once when I left somewhat late in the morning (~ 11am), and last week when there were 7 bikes, but the rack was broken and wouldn&#x27;t release them.<p>Cons:<p>As others have stated, the bikes are pretty heavy.  It&#x27;s fine on flat surfaces, but on slight inclines you will definitely work harder.  For most of the non-hilly areas they&#x27;re fine though.<p>General maintenance:  I find the shifters often out of alignment and components like seats, shifters, handgrips seem to be wearing out faster than I would expect for relatively new bikes.<p>Rack distribution:  This is being fixed, but right now, the sparse distribution of racks coupled with the 30 minute trip limitation (without paying more) means it&#x27;s mainly useful for that specific trip.  It&#x27;s not practical, for example to ride 2 miles to Safeway for groceries since it would run past the 30 minute window to get it back to the originating rack.  (Also the logistics of securing an expensive-to-replace bike in a bike-theft-heavy area).<p>Overall, if you have two frequent destinations served by the racks, it&#x27;s a great alternative to Muni.  Again, for my case, I consistently ride to Caltrain in ~ 10-11 minutes (tracked on the site) vs. 20-45 minutes on SF&#x27;s abysmal (IMO) public transit.