MetroBike Update on Capital Bikeshare

Today I have two Capital Bikeshare items to note and I'll begin with a little shameless marketing. First, MetroBike is assisting Montgomery County, Maryland (USA) with station site planning and implementation of their first 51 stations, which will be part of the regional Capital Bikeshare service. MetroBike has been working rapidly to research and prepare these sites with some wonderful County staff for the upcoming launch this week. For our friends in the Washington, D.C. area, the launch event is Friday, September 27th at 10:30am at the intersection of Maryland & Montgomery Avenues in Rockville, MD.

This will be the first bike-sharing service in the State of Maryland and will be the fourth jurisdiction to join Capital Bikeshare. These 51 stations will connect the inner suburbs of Friendship Heights & Bethesda on D.C.'s northwest edge and Silver Spring & Takoma Park on D.C.'s northeast edge. Also, there will be a satellite pod of stations in the less dense suburban and exurban Rockville & Shady Grove neighborhoods. These stations will connect with Metro's Red Line (subway) with downtown Rockville, housing, a shopping center, and the Life Sciences Center, which includes a hospital and various science-focused companies and universities. This satellite pod will highly focus on the first-mile/last-mile trip for commuters who live and work in this area and use the subway as part of their commute. It should be a fascinating study about how bike-sharing succeeds in the suburbs and exurbs. Academics take note.

Additionally, MetroBike serves as the program manager for Arlington County, Virginia's (USA) portion of Capital Bikeshare. We recently completed the Arlington County FY13 Summary Report on Capital Bikeshare which details Arlington's portion of the regional Capital Bikeshare service. The document discusses the service's growth, successes and challenges, and includes a three-year examination of many key statistics: like trips, number of customers, miles, and crashes. A graphic showing Arlington's total cost recovery since inception is below.

It's a good read to learn more about how Arlington's portion of Capital Bikeshare is doing after its first three years of service. The County has achieved a 61% total cost recovery this past fiscal year, but has a ways to go. Here are the stats from the document for a preview:

Capital Bikeshare just celebrated its third birthday on September 20 and regionally the service has reached 5.3 million trips with 248 stations and 2,073 bikes. Not too shabby as the Washington, D.C. region continues to strive to become ever more bike-friendly -- and is succeeding.

The Bike-sharing World - Third Week of September 2013

EUROPE:
Italy:

Bike-sharing on Both Sides of the Law

Arezzo:
  

Police Officer - Arezzo, Itally

In celebrating European Mobility Week, the citizens of Arezzo, Italy have been asked to forgo their cars and to get around town by bicycle, or by foot. In keeping with this goal, the local bike-sharing program, ARbike, is giving the police access to their bike-share bicycles. The Police will use these bicycles to patrol the city and keep the police cars and motorcycles in the city garage according to the news source: ArezzoNotizie.

Over in Milan, Italy, MilanoToday is reporting that a stolen bikeMI bike-share was used in an illicit drug transaction. The Police arrested both the buyer and the seller. The recovered drug bike was dragged back to the station! 

Milan:

Secretive bikeMi Pedaled in darkness

This shows that Bike-sharing is so popular that everyone is using it, no matter on what side of the law, one rides!

NORTH AMERICA:

USA:

San Francisco:

This Summit, in San Francisco, California on October 10th and 11th, 2013, is one of the first conferences in the United States covering bike-sharing which is open to the public. It is not just for government or transportation officials, but for everyone interested in the bike-sharing phenomenon. The Shared Use Mobility Summit will have speakers who were instrumental in making Bike-sharing happen in North America and Europe. There will be panel discussions on how to make Bike-sharing work well. There is also the possibility that new bike-share systems will be on display at the Summit!

There is still time for discounted registrations through September 16, 2013: Register Now

The web address for the Summit: sharedusesummit.org. If you or your city are planning a Bike-sharing program, this Summit should not be missed! Oh yes, there will be segments on car-sharing too!

Mexico:

Mexico City:

Ecobici Ride - Mexico City

Impressive usage numbers were reported this summer for Mexico City's Ecobici. With over 3250 bicycles in active use throughout 268 stations, by the end of July, over 9 million trips were taken since the program started. The number of subscribers has exceeded 95,000. On August 28, 2013 over 28,800 trips were taken in one day. Earlier this year, the system was finally opened for daily use by non-residents according to El Sol de Mexico and El Universl. 

Just as impressive, are the results of studies by MercadoLibre, the online retailer, and The Del La Riva Group - Mexico. These studies, as reported in tera-economia, attribute the success of Ecobici as one of the factors in the 50% increase of online bicycle purchases in Mexico. This is another instance that shows bike-sharing helps stimulate bicycle business in North America.

THE WORLD:

Who will be the 4,000,000th person to view The Bike-sharing World Map? In less than four years four million people from all over the world have come to recognize The Bike-sharing World Map as the premiere resource for information on cities with bike-sharing. Are you the 4 millionth viewer? Here is the new easy web address for viewing the map: www.bikesharingworld.com

(Update: The four millionth viewer studied the map on September 16, 2013)

Follow the Map on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/BikesharingMap

See the O'Brien Global Bike Share Map which shows real time bike usage in over 100 cities!

images: Arrezo Notizie, BikeMi Calendar, mas por mas/DF,

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

The Bike-sharing World: First Week of September 2013

NORTH AMERICA:
USA:
California Dreaming:
San Francisco, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, and San Jose

Last week, Bay Area BikeShare debuted in five California communities: San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Redwood City. Billed as a "pilot program", it has the possibility of changing the direction of bike-sharing in North America. Although, it is not the first North American regional bike-sharing program, Capital Bikeshare and The Hubway are regional, but it is the first single program that serves non-contiguous cities. It takes to the extreme, the concept of using personal mobility to solve the "first mile/kilometer" and "last mile/kilometer" problem of fixed route transit.* 

Caltrain Route

With Bay Area BikeShare, a user can pick up a shared bike and ride to a Caltrain Rail Station, dock the bike, ride the train to another select rail station, then take another shared bike to a final destination. This program could become the template for all subsequent programs where there is inter-city transit.

The Bay Area program allows true A to B transportation over a large region.This program takes the European rail station bike system concept like OV-fiets, Scotty Blue Bikes, Call a bike, Publibike, and the new British Bike & Go into being real bike-sharing and not bike rental. Unlike the European system, with the Bay Area program bikes can be returned to any bike station. There is no penalty when the bike is docked at another bike station rather than the one from where it was taken.

With success, we hope, Bay Area BikeShare will quickly expand to its original proposed starting size of 1,000 bikes in 100 stations. Then as it comes out of training, bring bike-sharing to the entire Bay Area.

San Francisco

Since we know everyone can't get enough information about bike-sharing, whether it's new, old, or the future, there is a place to get that shared information. The Shared Use Mobility Summit in San Francisco on October 10th and 11th will have demonstrations and panel discussion on bike-sharing. There will be speakers and experts on everything that is bike-sharing and possibly debuts of new bike-sharing systems. Oh yes, there will be segments on car-sharing too!

There is still time for discounted registration until September 16, 2013: Register Now

The web address for the Summit: sharedusesummit.org. If you or your city are planning a bike-sharing program, this Summit should not be missed!

EUROPE:

FRANCE:

Dunkirk:

A little over 73 years ago this summer, thousands of boats and ships streamed out of the French port of Dunkirk to cross the English Channel. As of September 2, 2013, in a bad analogy, English tourists to this port city will see that Dunkirk's bike-sharing ship has come in with the start of dk'vélo. Beginning with 100 bikes in 20 stations the program is planning to grow to 280 bikes in 34 stations. In keeping with the bike-sharing movement towards transit integration, dk'vélo's €10 annual pass ($13.00 US) is only €5 when a subscriber also has the dk'bus pass. The 24-hour pass to bike around Dunkirk is only €1, allowing each trip of 30 minutes or less at no extra charge. The next additional 30 minutes of continuous use is another €1 and then €2 each additional 30 minutes thereafter.

ASIA:

CHINA:

Hangzhou:

The newest replacement bikes for the Hangzhou Public Bicycle Service will have two different bike station locking devices according to Hangzhou.com.cn. Since 2008, Hangzhou has utilized a system for locking bikes similar to the French CycloCity "bornette" that requires a down tube side mounted locking device for anchoring the bicycles to the single post or column.

Because the Hangzhou system is now installing three sided glass wall multi-purpose covered bike stations, it is cheaper and easier to install a single rail along the back wall of the station, similar to the Clear Channel SmartBike system, for docking the bicycles. Each lock on the rail has a card reader and is interactive. The new bicycles will be able to use either system. The Hangzhou Public Bicycle Tech Center is marketing this new system to other Chinese cities.

AUSTRALIA:

AUSTRALIA:

 

A friend to the Bike-sharing Blog in Brisbane, Elliot Fishman, has recently published a study on the Barriers to Bike-sharing in Australia: The Barriers and facilitators to public bicycle scheme use: A quantitative approach. Generally these studies carry a substantial price for a copy, but for this month and next, Elliot Fishman's study is available at no charge: Download at the web site: Transportation Research Part F.

THE WORLD:

There are now nearly 4,000,000 page views for The Bike-sharing World Map. There is also a new easy web address for the map: www.bikesharingworld.com

The Bike-sharing World Map is the #1 resource for bike-sharing systems world wide. It shows new systems coming online which might not be covered in The Bike-sharing Blog. With constant updates, it is  the best way to keep up with the ever changing bike-sharing world.

Follow the Map on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/BikesharingMap

See the O'Brien Global Bike Share Map. It shows real time bike usage in over 100 Cities!

images: Bay Area BikeShare, dk'vélo, Hangzhou, CityCycle, and Melbourne, 

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

* moving a transit user from his starting point to the transit line and from the transit line to the user's destination.

The Bike-sharing World - Mid August 2013

Europe:
United Kingdom:
                        London, England:

One of the first instances of an industrial action in the Bike-sharing world began today with Barclays Cycle Hire according to Skynews. The National Union of Maritime and Transportation Workers began a 48 hour protest against SERCO,the operating company that manages the Bike-sharing program for Transport for London, TfL. The threat of the protest caused many users of the program to take caution and shy away this morning. Though no appreciable disruption has taken place, less than 500 bikes were out at any one time during rush hour this morning. This compares to nearly three times as many on a regular rush hour morning.

Generally bike-sharing is the service that intercedes to ease transit problems in transportation industrial actions. It is good to see that in this type of situation, there have be no appreciable difficulties in London.

UPDATE: August 14, 2012, Industrial action completed. System had no major problems. An article on Barclays Cycle Hire employees: In Action .
On a lighter side in London, last week Mayor Boris Johnson made a gift to the newborn Prince George, third in line to the British Throne, of Cycle Hire Tricycle according to The Express.

As readers of the this Blog recall Mayor Johnson gave a Cycle Hire tandem to Prince George's parents as a wedding gift! See Royal Bike Sharing April 29, 2011

The World: The Bike-sharing World Map is the #1 resource for bike-sharing systems world wide. It shows new systems coming online which might not be covered in The Bike-sharing Blog. With constant updates, it is  the best way to keep up with the ever changing bike-sharing world.

Follow the Map on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/BikesharingMap

See the O'Brien Global Bike Share Map. It shows real time bike usage in 100 Cities!

image: Barclays Cycle Hire, Twitter, Trike-The Express

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

Sneak Peak at Copenhagen's Cykel DK

 

Tak (thanks) goes to my friends in the Cities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg for a sneak peak at their upcoming bike-sharing service, Cykel DK. This new uber high-tech service is to launch this fall in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, Denmark and will have some unique features such as an Android tablet with built-in GPS, real-time train departures and ticket integration, and real-time info on available bikes and docks in the area. Unfortunately, real-time Tour de France footage won't be available with this version of the software. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this on version 2.0. 

  

There will be 1,260 bikes at 65 stations and the service, of course, will be available 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Customers will use the tablet to enter their credit card info to unlock the bike. Tourists and other casual customers will pay 20 DKK (about 3.50 USD) per hour. Frequent customers can purchase a membership for 50 DKK (about 8.85 USD) per month.

Cykel DK is a non-profit that will be operated by the cities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg plus DSB -- Denmark's national railway system. For the Blog's U.S. readers, can you imagine Amtrak getting into the bike-share business?! It makes so much sense as an extension of their existing inter-city mobility provision. And Amtrak wouldn't even be the second or third national railway to do this: Deutsche Bahn in Germany, Dutch Railways in The Netherlands, and SNCB in Belgium already do this, plus I'm sure a handful of others.

I'm not sure if I've seen a bike-share technology that will truly take us into the 4th generation of bike-share, but from what I've read so far, it's looking like this could be it.

Here's their video with more info.

More information about Cykel DK is at http://www.byogpendlercyklen.dk and gobike is at http://gobike.com.

Image credits: Ursula Bach and gobike

Sixth Year Anniversary of Vélib' - July 15th

Translation: Elisabeth Meddin, Placement: Alexandre Meddin,  Original          

For 6 years Paris' Vélib' had been on The Bike-sharing World Map 

This Map is the #1 resource for bike-sharing systems world wide. It shows new systems coming online which might not be covered in The Bike-sharing Blog. With constant updates, it is  the best way to keep up with the ever changing bike-sharing world.

Follow the Map on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/BikesharingMap

See the O'Brien Global Bike Share Map. It shows real time bike usage in 100 Cities!

image: Vélib' et Moi

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

A Bike-share Wish Might Come True

Mayor Serge Godard awards the first membership to Patricia

Sometimes it is the little stories about bike-sharing that really demonstrates how transformational and important it is in peoples lives.  Since New York City began Citi Bike at the end of May and Chicago's roll out Divvy today, there has been one bike-share program starting almost every two days throughout the world. The one that caught my attention, happened yesterday in Clermont-Ferrand, a small city of 150,000 people near the center of France.

C.vélo, System: Smoove Box

The very first person to become a member of the city's new bike-share program, C.vélo, was an unassuming woman named Patricia. Since she moved to Clermont-Ferrand, she has waited patiently hoping for bike-share to begin there. She knew it would make her life easier. How did she know? She was the very first subscriber to Vélib' in 2007 according to the Vélib' customer service center in Paris! 

Take heart all of you around the world. If you are patient and wish hard enough bike-sharing will make it to your city or town!



The Bike-sharing World Map 
This is the #1 resource for bike-sharing systems world wide. It shows new systems coming online which might not be covered in The Bike-sharing Blog. With constant updates, it is  the best way to keep up with the ever changing bike-sharing world.

Follow the Map on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/BikesharingMap

See the O'Brien Global Bike Share Map. It shows real time bike usage in 100 Cities!

image: France 3, Cyber Bougnat

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

Commuter Parity Act

On June 6th in the U.S. House of Representatives a bill was introduced which would add bike-sharing as an acceptable tax-free bicycle commuting expense. If voted into law, the Commuter Parity Act of 2013 would allow employers to provide to their employees up to $35/month for "qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement" which means "any employer reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, or bikesharing program, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment." The bill also makes private bike needs pre-tax for the same amount and brings transit up to $220, which is the same amount that a single occupant vehicle gets. (Note: To those from outside the U.S. who don't understand why a solo driver would get a pre-tax benefit for driving to work, and one that is greater than for taking transit to work, welcome to a quick lesson on how our Congress sometimes malfunctions.)

Over the past couple of years I've called the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) multiple times about whether laws, such as the Bicycle Commuter Act and Commuter Choice Act, accommodate bike-sharing. The first time I was told "Yes, they do apply". A second call to confirm my disbelief brought, "No, they don't." A third call simply confirmed the IRS was as confused as I. They told me that I'd need to write a formal letter to the IRS requesting a determination for a special employer and a specific bike-sharing service, and pay a large fee for their research. Their response would only apply to my specific question and not to the hundreds of thousands of other employers who could possibly benefit from the same answer. Crazy, ain't it?

This bill makes so much more sense and it does need to be written into law with the word "bike-sharing" specifically called out so as there won't be any confusion... other than the fact that the term isn't listed yet in any dictionary that I've seen. As long as Congress is using The Bike-sharing Blog's definition on the top right corner of the website, we'll be set!

For The Bike-sharing Blog's U.S. readers, write to your Congressperson asking them to support H.R. 2288: Commuter Parity Act of 2013. Making bike-share membership and usage fees pre-tax is a great way to remove another hurdle and make bike-sharing that much more useful and economical to the public.

Some New Yorkers Can't Stop Trashing Citi Bike

New Form of "Dock Blocking," NYC Style

When it comes to trash talking about New York's Citi Bike, this is a glitch in the system that even the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board's Dorothy Rabinowiz didn't throw out in her opinionated tirade!

image: Amparo Sánchez Citi Bike Facebook Page 

The Bike-sharing World Map

Follow this Map on Twitter https://twitter.com/BikesharingMap

See O'Brien new Global Bike Share Map. It shows real time bike usage in 84 Cities!

The Bike-sharing World Map is the #1 resource for bike-sharing systems world wide. It shows new systems coming online which might not be covered in The Bike-sharing Blog. With constant updates, it is one of the best ways to keep up with the ever changing bike-sharing world.

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

CitiBike on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The American satirist Jon Stewart recently did a piece on New York City's CitiBike on The Daily Show. This tongue-in-check segment pokes fun at the new service, as well as both its supporters and detractors. It's a good watch.

                   

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Full Pedal Racket
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes

               

NYC's Citi Bike Launches with Much Excitement

Today the streets of New York City and Brooklyn are filled with 3,000 brand new blue bikes as part of the Citi Bike service which has been many years in the making. There are many articles already in the media about the "yay sayers" and "nay sayers", so this post is about the technological improvements that the equipment provides, advancing bike-sharing in leaps and bounds.

The first of Citi Bike's exciting advances in bike-sharing technology, developed by Public Bike System Company, are a solar mast and a combined key fob and smartcard reader. With New York's skyscrapers, getting sufficient direct sunlight to the ground was an issue that was solved with the addition of a solar mast atop the kiosk. The solar mast is a 5-6' pole that also is about 6" in diameter and collects not direct sun, but ambient light.

 The improved dock includes a dual slot for both the standard key fob and a larger smart card slot for a future multi-transport card, likely to combine both the subway and bikes in the future.

Other minor advances which may not invoke oohs and aahs, but as the program manager for Arlington's portion of Capital Bikeshare, I'm looking forward to bridging that can turn a location with impediments into a feasible site. This bridging can zig and zig around a tree well, manhole, fire hydrant, etc. and transform a space that was too small into a candidate for a station. As every inch of urban space seems to be spoken for, this minor advancement is a big deal.

One "only in New York" advancement is the little circle covering the dock holes on platforms to make room for deliveries. With such large stations, these gaps allow stations to be long while providing space for those deliveries to be made.

While I'm saddened to see Capital Bikeshare lose the title of "Largest Bike-sharing Service in the U.S.", I'm invigorated to have millions more using bike-sharing and furthering this crazy little concept that continues to spread throughout the world like wildlife. In Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York", he sings that if he can make it there, he can make it anywhere. As bike-sharing has been successful everywhere worldwide, it can make it there -- in New York too.

Happy 6th Birthday

Today is the 6th birthday for The Bike-sharing Blog. Time flies as you're pedaling along.

In these past six years, bike-sharing has taken the world by storm. There is no one individual leading the charge, but rather people all over the globe are seeing the value that bike-sharing brings to their city, county, town, or state -- whether it's to lower traffic congestion, improve public health, or increase economic activity around the bike-share stations.

Thanks to the bike-sharing employees who balance bikes from full to empty stations and keep them and the stations functioning. Thanks to the bike transit professionals who manage the services, plan for station locations, partner with friendly neighbors and organizations, and ensure that the services run smoothly. Thanks to the advocates who support bike-sharing in their communities, demand bike-sharing in municipalities where it does not yet exist, and help push the concept to evolve and innovate to better meet the needs of even more people. And thanks to the people who use the service and don't think twice about how bike-sharing has become part of their lives and the urban fabric of their city or town.

There are bike-sharing services on every continent now with millions of people sharing bikes daily. This is a long way from where we started just six years ago. Now tens of thousand of people in New York City and Chicago are anticipating the launch of bike-sharing services this month and next. There have been details of the on-going culture clash between car vs. bike as bike-share stations begin to dot city streets. As other cities around the world have taken to bike-share, so will these too and other cities world-wide as the automobile culture fades and the bicycle culture grows and becomes mainstream. Equity and safety for all.

Thanks for your continued support of The Bike-sharing Blog for these past six years and the next six too.

Sincerely,
Paul DeMaio and Russell Meddin

p.s. - Don't forget to check out The Bike-sharing World Map and our new Twitter feed.