The Bike-sharing World - Fourth Week of December 2014

Asia:
China:

     

During the past few years, China has experienced days with extremely poor air quality. Many of these days had high particulate counts which are considered unhealthy for the general population. As one of the ways to reduce the level of these dangerous particulates, the government is asking cities and provinces to encourage citizens to return to bicycling for "green transportation". Cities from the largest to the smallest are encouraged to institute or enlarge bike-sharing services. During 2014, thousands and thousands of bicycles have been added to the streets in China; in this year alone, 70 new bike-sharing programs began operating throughout all of the country. I closely monitor Bike-sharing in China for The Bike-sharing World Map, a service of this blog. The data was also vetted by Professor TANG Yang of Zhejiang University and one of his Masters students, FEI Yibo. 

Some basic numbers from The Bike-sharing World Map:

There are 235 cities or districts with operating bike-sharing programs in China. They comprise approximately 747,400 bicycles in 28,000 stations.

The cities and districts with the largest programs comprising 10,000 or more bikes are:

City	Date Launched	Bikes	Stations
Hangzhou, Zhejiang  杭州	2008	78,000	2,965
Taiyuan, Shanxi 山西太原	2012	41,000	1,262
Suzhou, Jiangsu  苏州	2010	22,940	976
Weifang, Shandong 潍坊	2012	20,000	700
Xi'an, Shaanxi  西安	2011	20,000	900
Zhuzhou, Hunan 株洲	2011	20,000	1,005
Shanghai (Minhang District)  上海闵行	2012	19,165	596
Xuzhou, Jiangsu  徐州	2012	18,000	480
Beijing  (Unified Districts) 北京总	2012	16,000	508
Ningbo, Zhejiang,  宁波	2013	15,000	600
Taizhou City (Jiaojiang District) Zhejiang	2010	13,000	200
Wuhu, Anhui  芜湖	2012	12,000	553
Foshan Chancheng, Guangdong  佛山-禅城	2010	11,694	208
Zhongshan, Guangdong  中山	2010	11,180	527
Qingzhou, Weifang, Shandong, 潍坊青州	2010	10,300	550
Changshu, Suzhou, Jiangsu 常熟	2011	10,000	355
Huizhou, Guangdong 广东惠州	2012	10,000	100
Kunshan,Suzhou, Jiangsu,  昆明	2012	10,000	343
Ninghai. Zhejiang  宁海	2010	10,000	85
Yangzhou, Jiangsu  扬州	2014	10,000	304
Yiwu, Jinhua, Zhejiang  义乌	2013	10,000	200

Conspicuously missing from this list is the City of Wuhan in the Hubai Province. Over the last few years, Wuhan had purportedly claimed the largest bike-share program in the world. Reports of close to 100,000 bikes in the program were widely circulated on the Internet.

In April of this year the city government closed down the program, which began in 2009, because of mismanagement and non-fulfillment of service according to China Hubei News and FDC.com. Most stations had no bikes and the bikes that could be found were not fit to be ridden. The Wuhan Public Bus Company was to take over the program with the intent of starting anew, but it has now backed out. The Wuhan City government is considering other options to bring back bike-share.

Desolate abandoned bike-share station in Wuhan, December 2014

In China, most programs throughout the country use a value-added RFID card to access the systems. Generally, the card must be acquired in person with proof of residency or foreign passport. The cards range in price, but most cities charge a refundable ¥200 RMB ($32 US) deposit and require an additional loaded amount on the card of ¥100 RMB ($16 US). The loaded amount is used to offset the overage charges, generally ¥1 RMB ($0.16 US) per hour, incurred over the one or two hours of initial use commonly given at no extra charge.

Below is a full list of Chinese operating programs in both cities and districts arranged in alphabetical order:

 Public Bicycle Programs In Operation in China December 2014

To view the entire list in large format see, Public Bicycle Programs In Operation in China December 2014

Europe:
Spain:
                    Barcelona:

In Barcelona, morning brings electric or more precisely, BiCiNg elèctric! Last week 150 pedelecs, electric-assist bicycles, were added to the venerable Bicing fleet. The pedelecs have their own special battery recharging docking stations, 5 are on the street and 18 are positioned in parking garages. In January 2015, BiCiNg elèctric will double in size to 300 pedelecs in 46 stations.

The new pedelecs cannot be commingled with the 5,300 regular bicings in the 395 stations currently in operation in Barcelona. Not only do they need the electric charge, but they also have a separate membership charge. The annual fee will cost €14 ($17 US). It can be purchased separately or as a supplement to the regular bicing membership. A usage fee of €0.45 for the first 30 minutes begins when the bike is taken out. Each additional 30 minutes, to a maximum of 2 hours, cost €0.80.

With BicMAD in Madrid and now BiCiNg elèctric in Barcelona, Spain's bike-sharing is moving into an electric 21st century!

UNITED KINGDOM:
                   London:
Barclays Cycle Hire is tweaking its rates for 2015. TfL, Transport for London, will introduce new "simplified" pricing next month where all overage charges will be £2 ($3.10 US) per 30 minutes. There will no longer be escalating charges for additional half hours. All additional half hours will be the same price.

IRELAND:
Three new Irish cities joined Dublin with bike-sharing this month: Cork, Galway and Limerick (bikeshare.ie). All share the same the same sponsor as Dublin, Coca-Cola Zero.
Bike-sharing is getting sweet on the Emerald Isle, but with no added sugar!


images: China: The Bike-sharing Blog, Wuhan: People.cn  Barcelona: Bici-vici, ecomovilidad, bicing

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 programs and the complement to The Bike-sharing Blog. Use this easy web address for viewing the map:  

www.bikesharingworld.com.

Follow the Map on Twitter@BikesharingMap

Barcelona's Bicing to add Vodafone to its Name

According to Barcelona's La Vanguardia, Europe's mobile telecommunication giant, Vodaphone will be the "naming" sponsor of Barcelona's successful bike-sharing program, bicing. The report states that at the beginning of April, the bikes, the stations, the uniforms, the website and naturally the mobile apps will all say "vodafone - bicing." 

The money from the 3 year contract for the branding of bicing with Vodafone will help the program keep the service levels high while reducing public subsidies to the program.

New name in Barcelona

images: vodafone, bicing and la vanguardia

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 - Early January 2013

Europe:

A Tale of Two Cities

As 2012 was coming to a close, two of the most successful bike-share programs in Europe announced steep price increases of 100% or more for 2013! In October, Bicing in Barcelona announced membership policy changes and price increases of 116% according El País. In November, Barclays Cycle Hire in London announced doubling the price of daily, weekly and annual memberships according to the Times.

proposed an annual increase from € 45.11 to € 97.50 ($128 US)

        

proposed an annual increase from £45 to £90     ($144 US)

A funny thing happened. The reaction in Barcelona by the Bicing membership was swift and strong. There was a demonstration, Save our Bicing, protesting the increase with a march on City Hall. Opposition by Bicing members and the bicycle community at large caused the city government to re-think the increase and ultimately changed the increase to only 3% (the consumer price index change for the year). This will start in February according to Bicing.  

While in London, there seems to have been very little reaction. Boris Bikers took the increases with the proverbial British, "stiff upper lip" and dug deeper in their pockets. The rate increase took effect on January 2, 2013 according to Transport for London. There were a few complaints on how the renewals were handled, but nothing nearing the reaction as in Barcelona. If there is a bright side to a 100% price increase in London, it is that the new one day rate of £2 ($3.20 US) is still less than a regular one way "Tube" or bus fare!

NORTH AMERICA:

USA:

                      Washington, DC:

Paul DeMaio at Capital Bikeshare Launch on September 20, 2010

The Best Bike-Sharing Program in the United States

In the daily web magazine Slate, January 7, 2013, the column, Doers: People who accomplish great things and how they do it, The Best Bike-Sharing Program in the United States: How D.C., of all places, made it happen, profiles fellow bike-share blogger Paul DeMaio as one of the prime movers and shakers that made Capital Bikeshare a reality.  This is great recognition for Paul, his work and the The Bike-sharing Blog. Capital Bikeshare could not have happened without the work of many, many people in both Arlington County and the Washington, DC. Many are listed in this Slate article and in the Greater Greater Washington, January 9, 2013 article: Many unsung heroes made Capital Bikeshare a reality. Each and every one of them deserves a lot of credit. Thank all of you for making Capital Bikeshare The Best Bike-Sharing Program in the United States. There are a few cities though, that might take exception to which is the best!

images Bicing, Barclays, Metrobike LLC


The World:

The Bike-sharing World Map is the #1 resource for bike-sharing systems. It shows new systems which come online which might not be covered in The Bike-sharing Blog. With over 3 million page views, it is known as the best way to keep up with the ever changing bike-sharing world.

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

Bike-sharing Creates Job

With the U.S. political conventions next month and Presidential election in November, there is much talk about the nation's economy and job creation. During this time of budget cuts to important Federal and state programs, it is important to consider how the bike-sharing industry is contributing to the local economy of the cities and towns where these services exist and the jobs they provide. In addition to being employment, these jobs are green, improving the local environment and air quality. Right from their start-up, bike-sharing services can contribute 10 - 20 jobs to the local economy for smaller implementations and 30 - 50 jobs for larger ones.

A sample of bike-sharing services in the U.S. and Europe shows the following full-time and part-time jobs created for the various services. (Click on the chart below to enlarge.)

Not only has bike-sharing become a job creator, but it has also helped people get to their jobs. With annual memberships between $50 - $80, people are getting to work fast, adding daily activity to their lives to stay fit, and saving money. In fact, survey analysis by Capital Bikeshare in the Washington, D.C. region, suggests that members saved $819 per year on personal travel costs which is an annual savings of $15 million among the service's 18,000 at the time of the survey.

Have Card, Will Travel

B-cycle in the snow

DecoBike in Miami Beach

One of the hallmarks of the 4th generation of bike-sharing will be the single transportation card. A pass that is operative on the bus, metro, tram, light rail,  taxis, car-sharing and car parking. We wrote about the experiment with the  Mobilitätskarte (Mobility Card) of Berlin in our Bike-sharing World -- June 2011 as a step in this direction. Another hallmark will be an inter-operative card between bike-sharing systems. A good example is Boulder B-cycle members can use Denver B-cycle and visa-versa. In Germany, a registration, by card or telephone, with Metropolradruhr or nextbike will work in all their locations. Bicincittà is in the process of making all their bikes available to all their card holders.

Haikou Public Bicycles Haikou, China

Last week, the bike-sharing service in Wuhan, China (currently the largest in the world with 5,000 more bikes than Hangzhou) announced an intent with the bike-sharing service in Haikou, China to give reciprocity to each other's card holders to use each other's system. Wuhan is in central China on the Yangtze River and has harsh winters. Haikou is on a large island in the South China Sea with warm winters. According to reports by the Chinese Bicycle Association, the intent is to allow leisure and business travelers to enjoy bike riding in the tropical climate of this ocean city! What a complementary pair of services.


This conjures up whole new avenues for bike-sharing. The systems of Scandanavia, such Stockholm City Bikes, could have reciprocity with Barcelona's Bicing with less harsh winters. The Polish system in Rzeszow, RowRes, could exchange with Batumivelo on the Black Sea. B-cycle in Madison, Wisconsin could let its University of Wisconsin members enjoy spring break with B-cycle in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in the USA.


As bike-sharing becomes more universal and technology takes bike-sharing into the 4th generation, these types of member-sharing across different manufacturers of systems will be common. If two of the largest cable television competitors in the US, Comcast and Verizon, can come together to service mobile telephone subscribers, bike-share companies, and in some cases their municipal owners, can come together to service their subscribers also.


images: LifestyleDenver, DecoBikes, Haikou


Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

The Bike Sharing World - First Week of January 2012

Europe:
     UK:

London's Barclays Cycle Hire shares some pretty impressive statistics as it starts 2012. There are now almost 146,000 subscribing members to the 6,000 bike system. That compares to Barcelona with 120,000 current subscribers for 6,000 bikes and Paris with 209,000 subscribers for 20,000 bikes. Although it does not top Dublin, which has the highest ratio of subscribers to bikes with 38,000 subscribers to 550 bikes, London is very respectable!
Also, a most interesting statistic is that in the one year that 'Boris Bikes' have been open to "casual users" or walk-ups, there have been 2,030,000 of them. That averages to around 5,400 a day! These statistics were posted on the Barclays Cycle Hire web site at Key Facts this week.


Oy!
Bike-sharing is terminated in Cardiff, Wales. OYBike suspended its bike-sharing service there the last week of December. It was not able to find replacement funding for the Cardiff Council's subsidy which covered the £70,000 ($110,000 US) yearly operating cost. The service which started in November 2009, had 2,000 subscribers when it closed.


     Spain:


Barcelona's Bicing increases it annual membership cost from €35 ($45 US) to €44 ($56 US). It is estimated that the 120,000 annual memberships are only paying about 21% of the yearly operating cost, according to El País Catalona. The system is contemplating selling advertising on the bicycles or on the stations as a way to cover more of the operating expenses of the system.  

Update: €4 of the new Bicing membership is a mandatory insurance policy to cover third-party claims, first-party injury or damage and legal assistance for the user.


Asia:
     China:


Wuhan's 70,000 bikes tops Hangzhou's 60,600 bikes!

The City of Wuhan on the Yangtze River is claiming the title of the largest bike-sharing system in the world with 70,000 bikes! The Municipal Government for 2012 is consolidating the non affiliated bike-sharing companies into one system for the city.  New automated stations are starting to be installed in the city. According to Chinanews, the city wants to integrate all public transportation into a unified system. 


North America:
     USA:
Cities in the US have embraced bike-sharing during 2011. Many new systems were launched and many older systems were expanded.  These will be considered minor occurrences compared to the expectations for 2012. Just between New York City and Chicago, 13,000 new bikes will hit the American streets. Add to that, Chattanooga, Baltimore, the City of San Francisco with the Bay Peninsula, the City of Miami, Houston, probably Nashville, Charlotte and Portland will all put bike-share bikes on the street. Let us not forget that the suburban communities of both Boston and Washington, DC will rolling out more stations and bikes too. 2012 will give North America a high ranking in the Bike-sharing World.


South America:
     Brazil:

In Rio de Janeiro Samba now dances with a new name, BikeRio. It is an expansion of the old bike-sharing system which now covers much more of the city, and not just the beaches. There are now 600 bikes spread out over 35 stations with another 25 on the way for the start of 2012. It cost 5R$ ($2.70 US) for the one day or 10R$ ($5.45 US) for a monthly pass. Registration for the system is online for more than the one day pass. While the one day can be acquired by mobile telephone. BikeRio has increased popularity because the original system had cost 10R$ for just one day. There is no extra charge for the first sixty minutes of use, but it cost 5R$ for each additional hour. The new system gained sponsorship by itaú, the Brazilian Bank, at the end of October and has prospered since. BikeRio itaú is operated by Mobilidade same company that ran Samba.


Don't forget to check out bike-sharing in your part of the world on The Bike-sharing World Map.


images: The Bike-sharing Blog, El País Catalona, Chinanews, XinFeida, BrasilAtual


Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org