The Bike-sharing World - Last Week of March 2014

EUROPE:
United Kingdom:
                                       London:

The Tour de France Boris Bike

101 Boris Bikes now carry the bright yellow color of the Leader Jersey of the Tour de France. This year marks the 101st run of the Tour de France and three stages of the Race will roll through the United Kingdom this summer. On July 7, 2013, the third Stage will end in London! We can't wait to see one of these yellow Boris Bikes be the first to cross the finish line!

NORTH AMERICA:
USA:
                                      Boston:

"Prescribe-a-Bike" program for The Hubway

A new program, "Prescribe-a-Bike," will allow doctors at the Boston Medical Center to write prescriptions for their low-income patients to qualifiy for a greatly reduced price of $5 for an annual membership to the Boston area's The Hubway. “Obesity is a significant and growing health concern for our city, particularly among low-income Boston residents,” said Kate Walsh, chief executive of Boston Medical Center, according to Boston.com. “Regular exercise is key to combating this trend, and Prescribe-a-Bike is one important way our caregivers can help patients get the exercise they need to be healthy.”

The Hubway re-opens area-wide on April 2, 2014, which will take a lot of weight off those Bostonians who have been waiting through a cold winter for these rides!

images: Mayor's Watch, and Dirt Riders

Russell Meddin             bikesharephiladelphia.org

Keep in touch with The Bike-sharing World with The Bike-sharing World Map. It is the premiere resource for information on cities with bike-sharing and complement to The Bike-sharing Blog. The easy web address for viewing the map is www.bikesharingworld.com.

Follow the Map on Twitter@BikesharingMap

The Bike-sharing World Mid-November 2012

NORTH AMERICA:
USA

San Diego, California:

Decobike at Petco Ball Park San Diego

San Diego is to be decorated with bike-sharing from Decobike.

Today the City of San Diego announced in a press release that it has picked Decobike, the master of ocean side bike-sharing, to provide the city with a new program. Covering the area stretching from La Jolla to Downtown San Diego along the coast, there will be 1,800 bikes in 180 stations to start. Projected schedule to launch the system is Fall 2013. It is to be a comprehensive system with about 4 stations on average per 2.5 km² (one square mile) and a bicycle to resident ratio of about 1 to 155 in the areas served.. This will position San Diego to become one of North America's most utilized bike sharing programs. With Decobike picked for San Diego, Southern California is no longer being considered a reservation of Bike Nation.

Fullerton, California:

Speaking of Bike Nation, more of the Los Angeles basin will be covered by Bike Nation. This week Fullerton, California picked Bike Nation to develop it's bike-sharing pilot program of 165 bikes in 15 stations. It hopes to expand this program to 515 bikes in 50 stations in two phases. No start date was stated in the announcement. Bike Nation now has programs planned for Anaheim, Fullerton, Los Angeles, Venice and Westwood California.

Long Beach, New York:

Green Decobike Station on shattered boardwalk

Speaking of DecoBike, when Hurricane Sandy hit Long Beach, NY, it tore up the ocean side boardwalk, but left this green Decobike Station standing. Before the hard hurricane winds, Decobike removed the bikes and put them into safe storage. All the stations have survived, but it will be a little time before the boardwalk is replaced and the Decobikes will begin rolling again.

New York City, New York:

Citi Bike Storage Building 293

Speaking of Hurricane Sandy, reports in the New York Times and New York Post indicate that the first floor storage area of the Brooklyn Navy Yard building where the hundreds of bikes and stations for New York's Citi Bike program are housed, took in between 1.5 and 2 meters (4 to 6 feet) of water with the Hurricane's ocean surge. A NYCDOT spokesperson indicated that there was damage to the equipment, but it was too early to determine the extent of the problem.
We all hope that there will be no further delay in deployment of Citi Bikes.

Update: According to the Montreal Gazette, a spokesperson for the equipment supplier to the Citi Bike program said that hundreds of bikes and many stations suffered damage from the hurricane. The article also indicated that before the hurricane, ongoing test of the program's software, which had delayed the start of Citi Bike in July, were not going well.

Boston, Massachusetts:

Boston's regional bike-share, The Hubway, held a contest to determine the best visualization of the trip data for 500,000 of its rides. The Hubway Data Visualization Challenge has announce the winners. The First Place award goes to Ta Chiraphadhanakul. All the other winners can been seen on the Data Visualization web page. There were 67 entries all of which are very good. We're sorry our friend Ollie didn't make the top 10!


images: NBC 7, Decobike, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Hubway, Bike Nation

Russell Meddin       bikesharephiladelphia.org

The Bike-sharing World - Second Week of August 2012

NORTH AMERICA:
USA:

      Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts 

Installation of new station in Somerville

August 8, 2012 marks the first major expansion of The Hubway in the Boston metropolitan area. The Hubway is now a regional system rather than a city system. There are a total of 77  bike-share stations of which 64 are in Boston, two in Brookline, eight in Cambridge and three in Somerville. By the end of this season, the regional system will include 111 stations and 1,100 bikes. To celebrate, according to the Boston Globe, the system had an all day "Rolling Lauch Party" with events in each of the municipalities. With each new area having its own new stations and a new web presence, the system is now just called The Hubway instead of New Balance Hubway.

 

Speaking of expansions, over this summer, both Nice Ride Minnesota and Capital Bikeshare have made extensive increases in the amount of bikes and stations in their respective systems. Nice Ride, now in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, has gone from 700 bikes in 65 stations at its start to around 1,350 bikes in about 145 stations today. Capital Bikshare in Arlington, Virginia and Washington, D.C. started with 1,100 bikes in 114 stations and now has close to 1,500 bikes in 179 stations.

                               Denver, Colorado

Make a reservation for a Denver B-cycle. Is this the start of something really big in the evolution of bike-sharing? For the upcoming Denver Ciclovia, Viva Streets 2012, on August 12, Denver B-cycle is taking advance reservations for annual members to put a bike on hold. Just fill out this form with the number from your B-cycle card. The Bike-sharing Blog would like to hear from people who use this special service about your experience.

                              Chattanooga, Tennessee

An article in The New York Daily News seems to imply that the Chattanooga Bicycle Transit System is where the future of bike-sharing for New York City and even the world will be found. It could be that Chattanooga will be the testing ground for new technologies for systems the same as Citi Bike. So let us sit back and relax and watch what unfolds in this story one transaction at a time.

                             Chicago, Illinois

                                                              photo Lloyd Alter

Bike-sharing will not be coming to Chicago before next year. "Rather than rush to get the bikes on the street … we are looking to launch in the spring so we can ensure that we do this right, and have the infrastructure and planning fully in place so the program is a success from Day One," read the message from Peter Scales, spokesperson for Chicago's Department of Transportation, sent to the Chicago Sun Times. The paper also reports that he denied that the delay was connected to the ongoing investigation by the Chicago Inspector General to the claim, by a losing bidder, that the contract awarded for the City's bike-share system was tainted by a conflict of interest. He also denied that although Chicago is planning to use the same system as New York City, the delay there did not affect the delay in Chicago.

CANADA:
                          Quebec



Although Citi Bikes are not rolling along the streets of New York City so far this summer as planned, they are rolling off the assembly line at a very fast pace. These smiling workers at Devinci Cycles put un peu d'amour (some love) in each of the bikes they are sending to New York City.

EUROPE:
IRELAND:
                        Dublin

Dublinbikes will start to triple its size from 550 bikes to 1,500 bikes by the end of this year. If all goes as planned, according to The Irish Times, 56 new stations will be installed before the end of 2012. This is to be the beginning of a five-year plan to increase the size of one of the most successful bike-sharing systems in the world to 5,000 bikes in 300 stations. This is not bad for city with a population of a little over 500,000 people. There are currently around 46,000 long-term subscribers to dublinbikes. Daily usage is still around 13 times per bike per day according to Cycling in Dublin. That's high by any standard.

images: Somerville, Nice Ride, The Bike sharing Blog, Denver, Summer Stock, Broadway, Performance Bikes, dublinbikes

Russell Meddin         bikesharephiladelphia.org

Boston on Massachusetts Bay begins Bike-sharing today with The Hubway

This morning New Balance Hubway is up and running in Boston. This brings Boston into the select group of North American cities with major bike-sharing systems. Although New Balance Hubway is planned as a regional system, it starts with a Phase I of around 600 bikes in about 60 stations in the central parts of Boston. Already the adjacent municipalities of Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline are exploring having Hubway stations, according to the Boston Globe. There is a handy user-friendly Request A Station Locator Map where anyone can suggest a station location in the region. The expansion of the system is a shoe-in with the New Balance Company as its naming sponsor.

Even with only 600 bikes, New Balance Hubway has installed a few large docking stations in the expectation of a many members. Although the system will only run spring through fall, the yearly subscription of $85 is a bit more than its sister program Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C. and Arlington, Virginia. For $10 more, you get a few months less. Both services are operated by the same company, Alta Bicycle Share, however, pricing is set by the governments for Capital Bikeshare and likely the same is true with Hubway.

In a very interesting twist on usage fees, New Balance Hubway is charging around 25% more to its 1-day and 3-day "casual" users over what it charges its annual members who keep the bike over the first 29 minutes (below).

The Bike-sharing Blog welcomes Boston and its region to the bike-sharing world.

images: The Bike-sharing Blog and The Hubway

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Hubway Coming to Boston Area

This afternoon Boston signed the deal to bring bike-sharing to the Massachusetts Bay Area. With the goal of making a regional system, Boston will start Hubway, the name of its bike-sharing service in July with 600 bikes in 61 stations. The neighboring Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville communities are expected to join Hubway within the year and other communities to follow soon thereafter to ultimately have 5,000 bikes throughout the region with 300 stations. The system will use the Public Bike System Co. equipment, the same as in Washington, DC; Minneapolis; London; Melbourne; and Montréal. It will be operated by Alta Bicycle Share of Philadelphia which also operates the Washington, DC and Melbourne, Australia programs. The yearly subscription membership is pegged fairly high, at $85 which is $25 more a year than the comparable Nice Ride Minnesota and $10 more than Capital Bikeshare. The daily fare for casual users is the same as Minneapolis and Washington at $5.

The Boston-area athletic shoe company, New Balance, will be a major sponsor and has retained the naming rights to the system, according to a City of Boston press release. New Balance Hubway should be an interesting name for bike-sharing service considering bike balancing is a major element of every service.

image: The Bike-sharing Blog

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Feds Fund Bean Town Bike-share

Yesterday the United States Federal Transit Administration awarded a $3 million grant to the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) to fund the Boston Bike-share Project: "An innovative and truly transformational project, the Regional Bike Share System is a multiple-city bike sharing system making thousands of bicycles available throughout the Boston metropolitan area with the swipe of a card."

According to the Boston Globe, Nicole Freedman, the head of the city's Boston Bikes program, said, "This takes us over one of the main hurdles with bike share, which is having enough funding to have a launch size that we’re confident will succeed. Too few bikes and rental stations could doom the program to irrelevancy." This money will allow Boston to proceed, after this year's postponement due to insufficient funding, to create the large bike-sharing program that we reported in The Bike-sharing Blog on August 12, 2009.

Much credit goes to Boston Bikes and the MBTA for creative thinking about Bike-sharing funding for systems in the United States. This grant to Boston reinforces what The Bike-sharing Blog has championed: Public Use Bicycles are an integral part of a city's public transit system. It extends, compliments and enhances all transportation options. That sound of a Boston Bike-share bell 'bing' should be a wake up call to the many city governments in United States, which are thinking about Bike-sharing. The Federal Government thinks it's a good idea.

image: Boston College

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Around the Bike-sharing World This First Week of Fall

Lots of exciting this are happening this week in the world of bike-sharing. Here's a sample of what's to come:

Europe

The British Isles

Today the Cardiff, Wales City Council announced it will launch its bike-sharing scheme tomorrow with 70 bikes and 10 stations, according to the BBC and Wales Online. The system will be run by OYBike which has similar systems in London, Cambridge, Reading, and Farnborough in the U.K.

Last week the English resort city of Blackpool launched Hire-a-bike by Cycle Blackpool approximately the same size system as Cardiff's, but operated by Hourbike which has a small system in Bristol. The Guardian reports that Cycle Blackpool will grow the system to 500 bikes and 100 stations before next spring.

Dublinbikes, the JCDecaux system started earlier this month as reported here, has had incredible success. With 1,000 riders on the first day and 6,000 riders the first week, according to the Independent, this 450-bike system has a respectable two trips per bike per day usage rate.

These small bike-sharing roll outs all bode well for the next spring’s large London Cycle Hire scheme which you can read about here.

The Continent

Three new and innovative bike-sharing systems began in the last few months in France. Unlike most French systems, these programs are not supported by street furniture advertising, but are municipally and/or transit company-owned and operated. All three have solar powered docking stations. Vélopop in Avignon is a 200-bike program that uses the Smoove Key system. It is operated by TCRA, the public bus system in Avignon. Vélocéa in Vannes has 175 bikes in 20 stations and is owned by the municipal government. Vélo Bleu in Nice as first reported here, began with 900 bikes in 90 stations, and is owned by a regional government cooperative. It has high ridership, but says Metro, it is plagued by theft. Both these cities use the Veloway system. The new Rennes, Vélo STAR, though inaugurated this month, began service in June. Owned by the regional government, its 900 bikes have been used by 50,000 riders. The 80 stations are integrated with the subway and bus system in this Keolis operated system. Vélo STAR is around four times larger than the system it replaced as reported here.

Vélopop

The small country of Luxembourg has a new and interesting bike-sharing system in the little city of Esch-sur-Alzette. Vël’OK has only 120 bikes and 15 stations. It is joint venture between a nonprofit group and the municipality. It plans on expanding to 300 bikes next year. It demonstrates bike-sharing is stationing in smaller communities outside of France, Germany, Britain, and Italy.

Vël’OK

The big news in Italy is that Turin will finally join the 41-city Bicincittà system this spring. It will start with 58 stations and might be called either “BikeTo” or “BicinTorino” according to Metro.

The Mediterranean

Reuters is reporting that the municipalities of Greater Nicosia, Cyprus have agreed to launch a region-wide bike-sharing program soon. The RFID card service will cover the seven municipalities of Nicosia which include Aglandjia, Strovolos, Lakatamia, Latsia, Ayios Dometios, Engomi and the city centre. Clear Channel Outdoor has announced a new SmartBikes program in Kayseri, Turkey.

North America

Bixi is continuing its summer demonstration schedule into the fall. This weekend in Boston, MA for the Saturday professional bike race and the Sunday fun bike ride, there will be two bike-share demonstrations of Bixi. For more information see: Bike-sharing in Boston.

Images: vélopop, vël'ok, & Blackpool

Bike-share videos Bike-share photos

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

It's bIXI Bike-sharing for Boston

It was announced in the Montréal Gazette and the Boston Globe this morning that Boston is to follow London in choosing the bIXI bike-sharing system for the Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council bike-sharing program. The program’s plan is to begin with approximately 2,500 bikes in 290 stations then increasing to 5,000 bikes with around 475 stations through Boston, Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville, MA. As with London, the bIXI system in Boston is to begin around May 2010. An update on today's bi-city bIXI bonanza is online from bIXI.

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Boston Region Releases Tender

Like their beloved Red Sox, the City of Boston entered Spring Training! Well, bike-sharing Spring Training with the goal of joining the Big Leagues in Spring 2010. Mayor Menino & Boston Bikes announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a bike-share program.

Bike-sharing is part of Mayor Menino's vision to create a more vibrant, healthy, and green Boston. Menino said, "Successful bike-sharing programs in Europe have not only established biking as a significant means of transportation; they have transformed the entire culture and mindset around transportation." The RFP is for 1,500 bikes and 150 stations for the spring of 2010, but with the idea to expand to 6,000 bikes and 600 stations for Metro Boston. The goal of the program is to eliminate up to 315,000 car trips annually, reduce 750 tons of greenhouse gases, increase bike trips by 300%, and to create of over 50 new green jobs!

The RFP was released by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council of the Boston region. Being a regional tender will help their eventual program cross jurisdictional borders without any problems. A wise idea for other jurisdictions considering bike-sharing. - editor

Russell Meddin, Bike Share Philadelphia

image credit: Team on Top

Boston in 2010?

Boston has released a Request for Information to learn more about bike-sharing technologies and models for implementation. They're estimating the first phase of the project to include 450 bikes, 1,000 for the second phase, and "over 1,500" for the third.

Boston's bike-sharing program objectives are to:

"- Launch a successful bike-sharing program on or before May 2010 that is financially
sound, has the ability to expand in subsequent years, and is capable of meeting negotiated performance standards;
- Create an additional green public transit mode that is used by 15-50,000 people a day;
- Create 50 green jobs and promote green business in Boston;
- Increase the mode share of cycling in the city – target an increase in mode share from 0.5% to 2%-5%;
- Facilitate transit for commuters, tourists, and other visitors.
- Ensure that the service is capable of operating independently without long-term public investment; and
- Provide a service that results in high rates of membership satisfaction."

It's great to see Boston interested in bike-sharing. They've recently hired the city's first bicycle coordinator and have a lot to do to make Boston into a truly bike-friendly city. However, with the Request for Information, they are well on their way.

image credit: Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau