Like I said, Alta will will want to hook new cities on Bixi's system before expanding existing (trapped) ones unless there are penalty clauses in contracts for not being able to deliver more stations and bikes on schedule. Its much the same for drug dealers - expanding the client base is top priority. The only hope is if another manufacturer or operator can replace the entire system with a different brand cost effectively, meet expansion requests, and the used gear sold off for nearly the cost.
The other choice is to use the system data to optimize locations of existing hardware - move least used stations to where they might get more use until utilization everywhere is higher. Neighborhoods losing stations may be unhappy, but not very, because the data shows not so many made use of the station giving them little to stand on.
System data analysis can also allow stations to be increased without more bikes, so long as bike locations are kept better matched to demand locations. This increases operational costs with more van trips moving bikes, but that is what equipment shortages require. Again, it needs to be cheaper than contract penalties.
So where are copies of the contracts our government has signed with Alta?
