U.S. Bike-share Municipalities and Vendors to Convene Industry Forum

The following announcement was released by the National Association of City Transportation Officials on their website:

 

Release date: February 12, 2014

On March 2 - 3, 2014, leaders drawn from across North America’s burgeoning bike-share industry will convene for a two-day summit on the state and future of bike-share. The meeting, which follows a 2013 roundtable of bike-share system owners convened by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) in Denver last September, will gather industry leaders at a critical moment for bike-sharing in the United States. 

“We are right now at a critical juncture in which bike-share has the potential to become a much bigger part of our urban transportation systems in the United States,” said Bill Dossett, Executive Director of Nice Ride Minnesota. This meeting will enhance communications throughout our industry and help us build better, more sustainable bike-share and transit systems for years to come.”

While 2013 saw bike-share systems launch in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and several smaller cities, the industry has had growing pains of late. The declaration of bankruptcy by Public Bike System Co., one of North America’s largest bike-share vendors, has spurred cities and suppliers around the nation to come together to better understand how we can ensure the sustainability and success of bike-sharing going forward. 

“For cities, we see this forum as an opportunity to speak with a common voice and to communicate the importance of a sustainable future for bike-share as a part of our transportation vision," said Ed Reiskin, NACTO President and SFMTA Director. “NACTO is thrilled to play a lead role in accelerating the pace of innovation and elevating communications among cities and their partners for bike-share.”

The two-day meeting will be broken into several targeted dialogues, some consisting of only cities and system owners and others hosted by vendors to speak directly to their customers about their latest products, initiatives, and efforts to improve system operations and communications. Industry leaders will discuss how to achieve common goals, such as increasing system usage and revenue, and improving the overall bike-share user experience. This meeting is a positive step towards the formation of a bike-share industry partnership aimed at accelerating innovation and facilitating communication among bike share stakeholders. 

Bike-share vendors interested in participating should contact Bill Dossett of Nice Ride Minnesota (bdossett@niceridemn.org, 612-436-2074).

Cities [and counties] interested in participating should contact David Vega-Barachowitz of NACTO (david@nacto.org, 646-628-3337). 

This Bike-share Industry Forum is scheduled to take place at the Mobility Lab in Arlington, VA on March 2-3. (The address for Mobility Lab is 1501 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1100, Arlington, Virginia 22209.)

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I'll be there in my role as the program manager for Arlington County, Virginia's portion of Capital Bikeshare and encourage other jurisdictions with bike-share services and bike-share equipment vendors and operators to join us. This event will be ground-breaking for our fledgling industry. I hope to see you there!