The Bike-sharing World - Mid-December 2012

There's a lot going on in the bike-sharing world in December. Read on for an update from around the world:

ASIA:
China:

               Zhuhai

After a few weeks of a trial period, Zhuhai City, Guangdon, China, will officially launch its home-grown bike-share system this week. The 5,000 bikes in 195 station system is named "City Bike". There is a good video, in Chinese of course, of the system. Canopies will shelter 111 of the stations. It is reported that some of the stations will also have free WiFi -- now that's 4th generation in my book! As a twist on the initial 30 minutes usage at no extra charge policy, the system only allows 90 minutes at no extra charge per 24-hour period. The design of the components of the system look very similar to the Public Bicycle System Company's components for Barclays Cycle Hire in London. Maybe it isn't purely occidental!

                 City Bike - Zhuhai                                                        Barclays Cycle Hire - London
               
               Anji

Last week, just ahead of Zhuhai, Anji in the Zhejiang Province of China launched a 1,500-bike/60-station service using the same equipment. Anji Public Bicycle is a good example of small Chinese cities with populations between 500,000 and 1,000,000 adopting the Chinese government's concept of "green travel, low carbon life".

Anji Public bicycle

Over the next two years, we can expect to see many more smaller Chinese cities launching good size bike-sharing services.


EUROPE:
Germany:
                Hamburg

StadtRad, the very successful DB Rent bike-sharing service in Hamburg, has 1,650 bikes in 123 stations. According to a DB Rent press release, it had two million trips last year. January 2013 will see a new price rate for bikes kept over the initial 30 minutes. An increase from 4 cents to 8 cents for each additional minute over the first 30 minutes will cause pfennig pinchers to get those bikes back in time! There is also a planned expansion of the system for next year. StadtRad, part of the Deutsche Bahn Call a Bike system, is not part of the yearly "Winterpause" where Call a Bike closes from December to March. Also for this winter, bikes will be available in the German cities of Berlin, Stuttgart, Kassel, and Frankfurt.

United Kingdom:
                          London

There have been 18,500,000 Boris Bike trips since Barclays Cycle Hire started in July 2010. Starting next month, access fees to use Barclays Cyle Hire will double! Here is the Rate Schedule. Even with this price increase, the new £2 ($3.25 US) daily access fee is less than a one-way trip on either the London buses or Underground. Boris Bikes are still the most economical way to get around Central London. In addition to the planned expansion to the west of London, Sales Agents are reporting that stations are proposed near the very busy Clapham Junction train station in the south of London.

                          Bristol
Even though the original Bristol bike-share system of 2009, lasted only 18 months, a new system came to town. Nextbike UK a division of Nextbike GmbH had an operating station with bikes at a conference there last week. Here is a video of the nextbike programs in English.




They also currently have a station with bikes just south of London.


Italy:
                        Florence

Ponte Vecchio - Florence, Italy

It has been a long time coming, but Florence, Italy might soon have bike-sharing. Like in many progressive cities, bike-share advocates have been working for years to get a system there. Recent reports indicate there could be bike-sharing available for the thousands of visitors who come to see the Ufizi and the Ponte Vecchio. A tender for 50 stations with 750 bikes is about to be released.


SOUTH AMERICA:
Brazil:
                         Santos

This ocean-front city close to Brazil's largest city, São Paulo, gets bike-sharing. Within the last month, the beaches of Santos, Brazil are filled with 150 Samba bikes in 15 stations. Bike Santos charges a modest registration deposit of 10R$ ($4.80 USD). The bikes are then available for 30 minutes at no charge. Go over 30 minutes and there is a 5R$ ($2.40 USD) charge for each additional 30 minutes. Once the bike is returned, there is a 15-minute waiting period before another bike can be borrowed at no charge.

                      São Paulo

Banco Breadesco Ciclofaixia

Yet another bike-sharing system is coming to São Paulo. Ciclosampa will soon have its 200 Banco Bradesco-sponsored red bikes in 20 Banco Bradesco sponsored red stations added to the streets of São Paulo. CicloSampa will be using equipment from the U.S. company Cycloshare. The other systems currently operating in São Paulo are SancaBike, Nossa Bike, and itaú bike sampa. With multiple incompatible systems, it is a very interesting city where bike-share doesn't share!

NORTH AMERICA:
USA:
                         Nashville

Last week, Nashville, Tennessee joined the growing number of Southeastern U.S. cities to embrace bike-sharing. On Thursday, Mayor Karl Dean introduced automated bike-sharing to Nashville with 190 B-cycles in 20 downtown stations. Nashville B-cycle offers the first hour of usage at no charge for the $5 day pass, the $10 seven-day pass, $15 month pass, and $50 annual pass. Each addition 30 minutes costs $1.50 (about $1.50 USD). Nashville B-cycle will complement the current Nashville GreenBikes city-wide Bike Library.


                      Portland

This week, Portland, Oregon's City Council cast its final vote approving a contract with Alta Bicycle Share to launch Portland’s bike share system in 2013. Mayor Sam Adams said, “Bike-share is a game-changer for bicycling in Portland.” Alta Bicycle Share announced it accepts the responsibility of developing, fundraising, launching, and operating Portland's bicycle transit system. The program is to start with 750 bikes in 75 stations.

                     Philadelphia

It has been a long ride since the beginning of 2007 when Bike Share Philadelphia began advocating for bike-sharing for Philadelphia. This month, Mayor Michael Nutter finally publicly announced to the Philadelphia Inquirer that he would seek appropriations for a bike-share service. The Inquirer quickly endorsed a program in an Editorial. We all are waiting in anticipation for the process to roll from words to bikes and stations, then into the best program in North America. 


images: Zhuzhai,  Barclays, Anji, StadtRad, Florence, Santostourismo, Bradesco, B-cycle, Alta and The bike-sharing Blog


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 almost 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

The Bike-sharing World - First Week of September 2012

NORTH AMERICA:
CANADA:

                                     Montreal

As summer comes to a close, the folks at bIXI Montréal have come up with a great new subscription membership plan for the occasional user. A bIXI key is issued with an online registration for $5 CDN ($5 US). Each day (24 hours) in which the key is used the subscriber is charged $5 and gets an initial ride time of 45 minutes with no extra charge for each use. This is a $2 savings over the regular day access rate which only gives a 30-minute initial ride time for each use during the 24 hours. The best part is that having the bIXI key eliminates using your credit card kiosk each time a bike is taken. 

Why has this taken so long to implement!!! When London first started, this was the only way a casual user could sign up for a day pass. This is a great plan for frequent visitors to the city who just can't utilize the value of monthly or yearly subscriptions. What about Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, London again, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Chattanooga, the Boston region, and the Washington, DC region? When do they get this plan?

USA:
                          Various Cities:   Crowd Sourcing Maps

Bike Nation - Downtown Los Angeles

Capital Bikeshare - Washington, DC region

Cincinnati Bike Share

Citi Bike - New York City

Bike Share Philly

Portland Bike Share

As new bike-sharing systems begin or older ones expand, the question of where to put bike-sharing stations needs to be answered. There are formulas that weigh proximity to transportation hubs, shopping areas, and residential density that are used for indicators. Following the in-place bicycling infrastructure as a guide is also used. Since the prospective users are the ones to be served, the best resource for bike-sharing station location is the users! The users know here they need stations at the start and the end of their journeys. Theses crowdsourcing maps are the answer to the question. They ask the users where stations should be placed. Developed originally for Capital Bikeshare in the Washington, D.C. region, their popularity for bike-sharing has grown quickly as shown above.

Quick updates:
Bike Nation will soon be fully operational in Anaheim. They recently won approval from the Long Beach, California, City Council to build a 2,500-bicycle/250-station service to go along with the installations planned in the Los Angeles basin areas of Downtown L.A., Venice, Hollywood, and Westwood.

Greenville, South Carolina has issued a bike-share RFP. The hot summer has made the Southeast USA a hot bed for bike-sharing.

ASIA:
CHINA:
                         Hangzhou

After an exhausting ride with just one minute to spare before those extra charges begin, it's great to know that you can dock your bike-share and get a refreshing drink or a quick snack. Well, the Hangzhou Public Bike Service thinks its users want that. They have commissioned 200 food and beverage kiosks to be installed next to some of the 2260 bike-share stations throughout Hangzhou according to a recent report.

Also out of Hangzhou there have been a few reports of bicycle failures due to rust. According to China Gxnews, a woman was thrown from a bike-share when the front fork collapsed. The report said the metal of the fork was so rusted that it was "paper thin". The oldest of the bikes have been in service for three years. Many are now being replaced.

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. Keep up with the changing bike-sharing world by frequent visits to The Bike-sharing World Map.


images: bIXI, Food kiosk

Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

East Coast/West Coast - August is Bike-sharing Demo Month in the USA

Bike-sharing Demonstrations:

August 2nd in San Francisco

During the Car-Free Sunday road closure in Golden Gate Park on John F. Kennedy Drive at Conservatory Drive East from 10 AM to 3:30 PM, MUNI (San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority), and City CarShare wants you to try out the BiXi, system of Bike-sharing.

August 8th, 15th and 22nd in New York City:

Enjoy “Summer Streets!” While Park Avenue is closed to motor vehicle traffic from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge on these three consecutive Saturdays 7 AM to 1 PM, there will be bike-sharing demonstrations of bicycles and automated docking stations from various international companies. These will include: B-cycle, BiXi, Eco Trips, NY400-Bike & Roll and Samba. The times and locations will be on the NYCDOT Summer Streets page.

August 11th and 12th in and around Seattle

At the Discover Center in South Lake Union in Seattle on Tuesday, 10 AM to 6 PM, August the 11th come and compare the bikes from: B-cycle, The Bike Share Group and BiXi, If that isn’t enough, come over to Redmond Town Center on Wednesday, 12 PM to 8 PM, August the 12th and do it all over again.

August 14th and 16th in Portland, Oregon

Spend a bike-sharing weekend in Portland on Friday August 14th at the Pavilion in Waterfront Park just under the Burnside Bridge and on Sunday August 16th at the Southeast Portland Sunday Parkways Event along the route between Colonel Summers and Mt. Tabor Parks. The reward will be an array of different bike-sharing companies: B-cycle, The Bike Share Group, BiXi, and Portland Bicycle Tours are all asking riders to give them a try. Schweers Technologies originally scheduled as a participant will not attend.

August is a great month for travel and biking. So share you travel time, enjoy these events and learn more about bike-sharing!

Russell Meddin www.bikesharephiladelphia.org

Portland Comes Up Empty-handed

As reported on BikePortland, Portland, Oregon has ended its search for a bike-sharing vendor and has chosen option D - none of the above. Portland originally began its search for a vendor to provide bike-sharing services in February 2007 and had three serious bids from Clear Channel Outdoor, The Portland Bike Company, and Library Bikes. Reasons as to why none of the potential vendors were selected to operate this service has not been disclosed at this time.

Potential reasons as to why there was no selection could include: 1) an economical bike-sharing technology was not offered without an outdoor advertising contract, 2) the user cost to the public was too high, 3) sufficient insurance or indemnity to the city was not offered, and 4) a required experience level was not available.

Hopefully Portland will not give up on bike-sharing. As the nascent field of bike-sharing grows in North America, more vendors and experience will make themselves available in the future to help Portland finish what it embarked upon. Portland is certainly one of the best cities in the U.S. for bike-sharing with the highest bike mode share of medium-sized American cities.

UPDATE: BikePortland states:

"Far from giving up on the idea, [Portland] Commissioner Sam Adams’ office says just they’re taking a new approach.

"Adams’ transportation policy staffer Shoshanah Oppenheim told me that once they began to 'delve into the meat of the responses' to their Request for Proposals (RFP, which was sent out on July 17, 2007), 'it was clear we needed to do more analysis.'

"Oppenheim says the legal restraints of the RFP process tied the hands of the committee formed to choose a vendor. 'Under the contraints of the RFP,' she said, 'we can’t talk to potential providers and continue to learn from them… it was hindering our ability to do the analysis we wanted to do to make sure the program was the right style and scope that would work for Portland.' "

Portland Considering Bike-sharing Bids

According to The Portland Tribune, Portland, Oregon closed its bidding period this past Friday for a bike-sharing service and will be reviewing bids over the next few months. The fleet size they're looking for is 500 bikes and the city is open to the idea of either an advertising or non-advertising-based service. Where advertising is accepted, corporations like Clear Channel Adshel and JCDecaux have huge advantages as the millions of dollars they make on advertising revenues from bus shelters, billboards, and kiosks pay for bike-sharing. However, the smaller local companies have the advantage of being more responsive and knowing the local environment better.

photo credit: Clemens Bilan/Getty Images