The Bike-sharing World - December 2011

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR


Much has happened in the world of bike-sharing recently. Here's a rundown of the news:
ASIA:
        China:

#1 Most Active System

Just west of Shanghai, China is the prosperous city of Kunshan. At the end of August of this year, the city launched its automated bike-sharing program, Kunshan Public Bicycle, with 3,000 bikes in 150 stations. At the beginning of this month, according to Kunshan News the system is reporting phenomenal usage figures. There are 79,000 subscribers, or card holders, with bikes being using on average over 16.6 times a day. The highest one day usage was 60,000 trips. This makes Kunshan Public Bicycle, the most active system in China and the World!

What contributes to the kind of huge usage? There are many factors. Firstly, there is a very low subscription price in the form of a deposit and the simplicity of paying overage charges, after the initial free first hour, are subtracted from the subscribers "added value card".  Secondly, there is incredible ease-of-use of the system. Mobile telephones can be used in place of the subscription cards to swipe at the individual docks to unlock the bikes. There are no numbers to compose or need to have a card at hand.

Then, there is a certain bicycle ethos with the population of Kunshan. It is the city where Shimano, one of the world's largest bicycle component manufactures has its China factory. Also you can be sure, there is no mandatory bicycle helmet law in Kunshan to stand in the way of serendipitous usage!


NORTH AMERICA:
        Canada:

The first two weeks of December finds many of the larger bike-sharing systems in the northern part of North America pulling up stakes and going into hibernation for the winter, however, Toronto bIXI is an exception. Keeping the system open through January, February and March 2012, Canada will remain a bike-sharing nation in the winter. They will show that they can roll with a chill in the air.

        USA:


The state of Florida will start its second major bike-sharing system with Broward B-cycle on December 14. If you are sunning yourself on the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, or Hollywood (the other one), you will have three opportunities to join the opening celebrations, see these times and locations. There will be around 20 stations and 202 bikes in the eastern part of the county to start and more coming in 2012. Also, if you subscribe to the system before the end of this year, you can get $10.00 off the $45 annual subscription price by using this special code (BCYCLE2011).


      Mexico:

Ecobici is a few months shy of its second birthday and is reporting increased usage numbers. According to lainformacion, Ecobici's 30,000 subscribers have taken over 3,000,000 trips as of the beginning of this month, compared to a total of 2 million last year. With daily usage now around 8 trips per bike, it is not the same as Kunshan, but it is very respectable.




EUROPE:
     Germany:
As with most of the Scandinavian bike-sharing systems and some in North America, many of Germany's Call A Bike systems will also go into hibernation for the winter months this week. The larger systems of Hamburg, Berlin, and Stuttgart will remain open, but for those that close, there is the Winterpause Take It Home service. To help its subscribers who want to ride through the cold winter months, for €60 ($80 US) a bike-share bike can be rented and used as a personal bike until the system re-opens in April. I will gladly rent you one of my bikes for this amount during the winter as well!


images: Kunshan Public Bicycle, Sun Sentinel and previous The Bike-sharing Blog postings


Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

The Bike-sharing World: Last Week of September 2011

Europe:
Bike-sharing cleans up in the United Kingdom. This morning is the official launch of Bike in Bath. This 58-bike, 4-station system has been in trials in Bath, England for two weeks. Though small, it is of big interest because the system is equipped and operated by Bicincittà. This will be the first Bicincittà system in the UK and complements the 70 bike-sharing programs it operates in Italy. The system is funded by the European Union-backed Civitas Renaissance initiative, which helps cities across Europe achieve more sustainable, clean, and energy-efficient urban transport systems.

Mid-September brought a new bike-sharing program to France's 4th largest city, Lille. V'Lille merges both a self-service component and longer terms bike rentals into the same system. There are 1,100 bikes in 110 self-service stations. The system will expand in April  of next year to serve not only Lille, but the contiguous cities of Roubaix, Tourcoing, and Villeneuve-d'Ascq. 

Only around 50% of the stations have kiosks which take credit cards to sign up for the one-day or seven-day subscription on the spot. All subscription periods are available online. The costs are reasonable: a day pass is €1.40 ($1.85 US), a week is €7 ($9.40 US), and the year is €36 ($48.50 US). Go over the first free 30 minutes and it costs €1 ($1.35 US) for each additional 1/2 hour. 

Don't want a self-service bike, but one to keep and use like a personal bike without buying one? V'Lille has 3,000 bikes to rent for one month at €5 ($6.70 US), 9 months at €27 ($36.40 US), and one year at €36. The bikes can be rented with accessories like a child seat. The long-term rental bikes cannot be docked at the stations.  

North America:


Within days of the announcement of the NYC Bikeshare program, Chicago, Illinois issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a 3,000-bike system to be operational by June 2012. This RFP has a very aggressive time table to put Chicago's system on the ground close to the time of New York City's. Chicago wants to increase the size of its system to have 5,000 bikes in 500 stations within 24 months of operation. It will be entertaining to watch this bicycle race between these two cities.


November should bring two new bike-sharing programs to the United States. Broward B-cycle serving Broward County, Florida, which includes Fort Lauderdale, is readying around 200 bikes to give south Florida its second bike-sharing system. Chattanooga, Tennessee is also readying  Bike Chattanooga to launch with 300 bikes throughout 30 stations. We hope that more southern cities in the United States will not be very far behind.


images: v'lille, BBC,


Russell Meddin     bikesharephiladelphia.org