We learn from the latest TIME that several U.S. cities are planning or discussing new bike-sharing programs.

This type of program has failed in the past, though Kristina Dell fails to mention the obvious reason: the tragedy of the commons.

The new, high-tech version of bike sharing uses as its model the Velib program in Paris. How have the Parisians made this idea work? Dell focuses on the improved technology. You?ll probably find a better answer within the following passage:

“We conceived of this as a public-transportation system, so it operates as one,” says Bernard Parisot, president of JCDecaux NA, the outdoor-advertising company that runs V?lib with the profits it makes from selling ads on bus shelters and billboards (emphasis added).

A for-profit company, not a government bureaucracy, runs the system.