I wouldn’t go that far to say it would be a failure. Over here in Minnesota, we have a bikeshare program that’s a huge success. What they did was they required the potential cyclist to pay for the rental vial credit card, put down a $200 deposit on the bike and then require the person to return the bike within 24 hours or else they lose their deposit. It costs around 30 bucks an hour to ride the bike (Which really cut into the bike rentals of the local bike rental businesses, BTW).
The risk of the bikes getting stolen and appearing in a chop shop is low, because the bikes have a distinctive look and on the open market, a bike like the ones they offer usually costs about 300$. Highly inexpensive for a bike and not worth the risk of a felony vandalism charge to chop them up and sell them.
In the bike-happy Twin Cities, the program’s become a huge success for a government program. That being said though, I think the private sector could have served the population a lot better and provided way more jobs and offered a better selection than the niceride MN pea soup colored bikes.
At this cost it's easier to get a cab: