The African Continent - The Third Week of October 2016

AFRICA
Morocco
Marrakesh

Medina Bike Marrakesh Morocco

The first public use bicycle program on the African Continent will begin on November 7, 2016.  Medina Bike will launch with 300 bikes in 12 stations for the opening of the Congress of Parties, COP22, of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, in Morocco. According to InfoMédiare the program will have equipment from the French company Smoove.

ASIA

China

Shenzhen

Mobike Light

This week Mobike, the free floating Chinese public use bike program, has expanded into Shenzhen, China. Starting in April 2016 in Shanghai, the are now Mobikes in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen according to LeiPhone.com. Also this week, Mobike introduced a new Mobike Light bicycle. According to the Shanghai Daily, this bike will first be deployed in the Baoshan District, just north of Shanghai. It will cost around 7¢US per 30 minutes to use this new bike. One half the price of using the original Mobike! Between these two bicycles, Mobike hopes to have 100,000 bicycles on the streets of greater Shanghai by the end of the year. That would overtake Hangzhou for the title of the city with the world's largest public use bicycle program.

EUROPE

Germany

Berlin

Nextbike Berlin, Germany

This week Nextbike started installing a pilot program running for the month of November in Lichtenberg, Germany. This is a test to make ready for its deployment of 5,000 bikes in 700 stations next year in the city of Berlin. The program is to replace the 1,500 bike Call-a-Bike system currently in Berlin. According to Berlin.de and Berliner Kurier, the City Senate has told Call-a-Bike to remove its bikes and stations, but Deutche Bahn, Call-a Bike's parent company, says it will replace its system with a new one in Berlin. Stay tuned for reports on this teutonic shift!

NORTH AMERICA

USA

Wisconsin

B-cycle Dash

B-cycle Dash+

B-cycle introduced two new bicycles to add to their offering for the public use bicycle market. The Dash has an 'on the bike user interface' that could be used in a 'free floater' dockless set up. It will be available soon and is compatible with current B-cycle programs. Also debuted, in prototype form, is the Dash+, a pedelec, which will be available in 2018. Both bikes can be accessed by mobile phone applications and a have a handle bar electronic screen to display navigation and information.

Texas

Austin

The North American Bikeshare Association

           2016 Annual Conference is November 9-11                                             Austin, Texas USA

This is the conference to attend in 2016 for all information you will need to know about Public Use Bicycling whether in North America or not! 

For information and registration: www.nabsa.net

images: Smoove, Mobike: Liephone, Nextbike: rbb/24, Bcycle, Digital Journal

Russell Meddin

Keep in touch with The Bike-sharing World with The Bike-sharing World Map. It is the premiere resource for information on cities with Public Use Bicycle programs and the complement to The Bike-sharing Blog. The map can be viewed at www.bikesharingmap.com.

Follow the Map on Twitter@BikesharingMap   

The Bike-sharing World: First Week of June 2011

Transportation Integration in Europe:

Starting today, Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company, is offering the Mobilitätskarte (Mobility Card) in Berlin. This could be the start of the future for bike-sharing membership cards. This card not only offers access to the new Call-a-Bike StadtRAD system, it also is an all-zone VBB, or Berlin Brandenberg Public Transit, pass which provides access to train, tram, subway, and bus, in addition to access to a new all electric car-sharing program. All that is missing from this card is parking meter payment!

The card costs €78 ($112 US) a month which includes a €50 ($78 US) credit for use of the car-share program. Since it is a trial, the card is only available for sale this month, but can be renewed for three months. The Bike-sharing Blog will be watching the acceptance of this card by bike-share users in Berlin. This type of all encompassing bike-share transit card will be a hallmark of 4th generation bike-sharing.

Known for its many flavors of craft beer, Belgium now will be known for its flavors of bike-sharing with the launch of A-Velo in Antwerp on Thursday June 9th. This will be another Clear Channel European system. With 85 stations and 1,000 bikes to start, the system will grow to 150 stations and 1,800 bikes in two years. The yearly memberships, which are available now, cost €35 ($50 US). There is a weekly pass at €7 ($10 US) and a daily at €3 ($4 US). As is customary, there is no charge for the first 30 minutes and each additional 30 minutes escalates in price. An interesting twist for membership is that if users keep a bike for 4 or more hours on three different occasions he or she will loose the bike-sharing privilege!

In Asia:

Kudos to Elizabeth Press of StreetFilms. She made a great video on the huge bike-share program in Hangzhou, China.

Since she filmed this in depth study on the largest bike-sharing system in the world, the Hangzhou Public Transport Group has been adding more bikes to reach 60,600 bikes at 2,711 service points for this year.

images: DB, A-Velo, video: Streetfilms

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

The Bike-sharing World: First Week of May 2011

Because the Northern Hemisphere is basking in warm weather, bike-sharing systems are blooming all over that part of the world.

The beginning of May has brought the official opening of Tel-Ofun in Tel Aviv, Israel. Watch video.

Yesterday morning bIXI hit the streets of Toronto, Canada. With 1,000 bikes in 80 stations, Toronto bIXI will be the 3rd largest system in North America! Bike-sharing is making big strides in Canada. Watch this news report

Later this week Nuremberg's NorisBike starts on May 6th. This is another system using neXt bike technology. Bike-sharing is expanding and evolving in Germany. Many programs are now establishing specific location docking stations and adding subscriber card and credit card access as well as telephone access to the bikes. Berlin's new Deutsche Bahn StadtRAD begins May 20th.

May 20th is also the official start date for Hawaii B-cycle although the two stations are now in use. Boulder B-cycle also starts on May 20th opening with 12 stations and expanding to 15 with 150 bikes by the end of summer.

Keep your eyes open, because there are more buds of bike-sharing systems ready to show their pedals and blossom into full service.

images: the marker café, Martin Reis bIXI, Hagen Gerulis Nüremberger Zeitung, DB StadtRAD, HawaiiNewsNow, 303cycling

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

The Bike-sharing World: March 2011

Europe:

StadtRad in Hamburg, Germany adds better functionality to its bike-sharing system making it easier to pick up and return a bike. In this bike-sharing era, there is much talk about smart mobile phones accessing new P2P (peer to peer) and social bike systems where no stations are necessary (i.e. "flexible" systems). In Germany where Call-a-Bike and nextbike have been mostly accessed by mobile phone, the newer systems such as StadtRad in Hamburg and Berlin have now added walk up kiosks as well. Beginning the first of this month in Hamburg, an RFID (radio frequency ID) membership card can be tapped on a bike's lock to release it. Tap the lock again with your RFID card when the bike is returned to lock the bike at any of the stations. Also, in Mainz, Germany, a system of 1,000 bikes in 120 stations, similar to StadtRad Hamburg, is currently under construction.

Nuremberg, Germany also starts a new RFID card system in two months. NorisBike will have 750 bikes throughout 65 stations. As attractive as smart phone based bike-sharing seems, the country that has used telephone bike-sharing for years is now moving to incorporate card-based kiosk stations to better serve its cities.

Europe-Australia:

Our friend Mike Rubo of the Sit-up cycles blog has made a new film with inciteful interviews from Barcelona's Bicing system. It explains how this system should be used as a model to improve bike-sharing in his native Australia.

In North America:

The Ides of March will grab lots of eyes as the sexiest bike-sharing system, DecoBikes, starts in Miami Beach Florida. Grab you bathing suit and take a ride on South Beach and enjoy the scenery!

Bike-sharing to return to Ottawa- Gatineau, Canada this May after a one year hiatus. The National Capital Commission (NCC) has approved a Capital bIXI system with 10 stations and 100 bikes for Canada's seat of government. NCC hopes to increase the size of the system to 500 bikes and 50 stations. Capital bIXI and Toronto bIXI will join Montréal bIXI in Canadian bike-sharing this year.

Crain Business News is reporting that Alta Bicycle Share and Trek B-cycle as finalist in the running for the New York City Bike-sharing contract for a system to begin late this fall or early next year.

images: Radio-Hamburg & DecoBike

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org