The Bike-sharing World: Second Week of April 2012

North America:
              Canada
   
Speculation is swirling in Canada that Public Bicycle Share Company (PBSCo), bIXI in Montréal, will be sold to SERCO, the operator of Barclays Cycle Hire, according to the CBC. Ever since the government in Quebec made it clear that PBSCo had no authority to market bike-sharing internationally and that the international sales had to be shut down or sold, SERCO has been considered the most likely buyer.

When speaking of the possible sale, Roger Plomondon, the retiring President of PBSCo, said, "It would be very sad to see, but from an economic point of view, they’re probably the most motivated potential buyer." With a large investment in the Barclays Cycle Hire program and the desire to expand, SERCO needs to protect its supply line for the bikes and stations. The same is true for Alta Bicycle Share. With 10,000 bikes destined for New York City and 3,000 bikes for Chicago, Alta and the cities under contract with Alta need the disposition of PBSCo to be settled.

                   USA

Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, announced during at the city's "CicLAvia" today plans for a new bike-sharing program to cover downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Playa del Rey, Westwood and Venice Beach. More details are in his press release. The system would have 4,000 bikes and 400 stations and might start deployment by the end of 2012.   

According to the LA Times, the program will cost $16 million. The system would not use City funds. It would be set up and run by Bike Nation, a California Bike-share Company. Bike Nation is in the process currently of setting up a pilot program of 150 bikes for Anaheim, California. It should begin late this spring or early summer.

Europe:

              Spain

What does a system do with old bikes that are serviceable but past their prime, especially when replacements are delivered? The City of La Coruña will give away older bikes of the Bicicoruña system to Asociación Mobi-Liza which will distribute them, upon request, to people who have fewer resources to buy one. The City sees this as an initiative to further promote cycling as a means of transport to its citizens. This is worthy re-cycling of bike-sharing bicycling.

images: The Bike-sharing Blog, Bike Nation, Bicicoruña

Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

Toronto closer to being the 2nd major Canadian City with Bike-sharing

Last night, Autoshare Car-sharing brought Toronto, Canada closer to Bixi Bike-sharing by buying 100 yearly subscriptions to fulfill one of the city government's requirement that 1000 pre-subscribers sign up before proceeding with a bike-sharing program for May 2011. The Toronto plan is to start with 1000 bikes and 80 stations within the Central Business District. Now only another $150,000 CDN ($145,500 US) in yearly sponsorships for each of the next three years must be secured on top of the generous ING three year commitment to fulfill the last requirement before the program can begin.

It will be good to see bike-sharing once more in Toronto!

image: Toronto Bixi

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

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Barclays Cycle Hire - London is Banking on it

This morning at 6 AM, Big Ben, the clock tower over Parliament, chimed the news that London joins other European capitals in the bike-sharing revolution with the introduction of Barclays Cycle Hire. London Mayor Boris Johnson is following the same path as Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë did 3 years ago this month by bringing bike-sharing to his city’s citizens. Although London’s Barclays Cycle Hire is one quarter the size of Paris’ Vélib’, it will be just as transformative.

Following the same formula as most bike-sharing systems, one can subscribe for one day at £1 ($1.55 US), one week at £5 ($7.80 US) or one year at £45 ($70 US). The first 30 minutes are free and then the next 30 minutes of use is £1, and after that the price for keeping the bike escalates very steeply. The cost of the Cycle Hire member “key”, the RFID access card, is £3 ($4.70 US).

For the first month, the system will be open only to members who register online for any level of subscription. To date, about 10,500 people have registered to become "pioneer" members of the scheme. The bikes will not be available for walk-up “casual use” to non-members during this breaking-in period. SERCO, the operator, and Transport for London (TfL) want the bikes to be the very best system possible and to understand how members engage with the scheme. So don’t rush to London and expect to whip out your Barclaycard, Visa, or Master Card at a station and try to grab a bike just yet.

When fitted out, Barclays Cycle Hire will have 6,000 bikes and 400 stations all over central London. Only around 4,800 bikes and 330 stations will available at first (see the map below). The bikes will not have auxiliary locks, so they will need to be re-docked for safe keeping. With the docking stations fairly close to each other, this should not present difficulties. We all know bike-sharing is for short trips anyway!

To help keep trips short, London has just opened up new bike lanes called Barclays Cycle Superhighways to get into and through central London a bit easier and faster. To reduce auto traffic, London’s City Hall sees these new bicycle amenities as a start of many initiatives it can really bank on as is evident by the £25 million (over $39 million US) sponsorship for the bike-sharing and the new bike lanes from Barclays Bank.

Interactive map link

The Cycle Hire bike is similar to the Vélib’ of Paris in size and weight. The bikes are made in Quebec, Canada by Divinci and supplied to London by Public Bike System Company. These same bikes are in service in Montréal, Bixi – BicycleTaxi, Minneapolis, Minnesota - NiceRide, and in Washington, DC and Arlington, VA - Capital Bikeshare in September. The bikes should be sturdy enough for London traffic.

From now on, the streets of London will flow with a new transportation icon: the bike in blue, black, and gray; its place secure with the double decker red bus and the ubiquitous black taxi.

More related London Cycle Hire posts in The Bike-sharing Blog: Banking on Bike Sharing - May 28, 2010, London calling - August 12, 2009, London shifts into high gear - April 30, 2009, Lock up or lock out - April 8, 2009

images: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

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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