Copenhagen & Frederiksberg Public Tender Upcoming

The Cities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, as well as public transport operators Metroselskabet and DSB, have entered a collaboration on the development and establishment of a bike-sharing system. At a later stage, the system could be offered to other organizations, such as other cities, public entities, private enterprises, and the like.

The task of establishing, operating, and maintaining the bike-sharing-system will be EU-tendered in December 2011. In the beginning of October 2011 a tender notice will be published and the prequalification will start. In connection with the prequalification, an informational meeting for potential bidders will be held on October 4th to inform about the practical matters regarding the tender. The meeting will take place at DSB, Sølvgade 40B, from 4-6pm local time. Registration for the information meeting can be made no later than October 3rd at noon by sending an email to Kim Guldbrandsen at kgu@dsb.dk.

Their vision is to give citizens, customers of public transport, tourists, and visitors in the city the possibility of using a door-to-door public transport system, and not only between train or bus stations. This will be secured by connecting the existing public transportation system, which focuses on transportation of many people over long distances with high comfort and short travel times, with the high flexibility of a bike. This generates increased accessibility to business parks, residential, shopping, and other areas of interest, which today are rarely serviced by public transport or where the existing network does not offer an attractive service.

image credit: Denmark Travel Guide

Arlington, Virginia Releases Bike-sharing Tender

Arlington County, Virginia has released a Request for Proposals for the operation of the Arlington Bike-sharing Program (RFP #56-09). The tender proposes a unique relationship between a local government and bike-sharing operator. The vendor will be responsible for operating the service, which includes administration, maintaining and distributing bikes, and collecting data. Arlington’s responsibilities will be for marketing the service, finding advertisements for the bikes, and providing some customer care. A pre-bid conference for interested vendors will be held on March 5 and the RFP will close on April 2.

The tender has the vendor purchasing “an off-the-shelf system, if not having a system of its own devise, and operating it for the public’s benefit.” Even just one year ago there weren’t many options for off-the-shelf systems, but now a handful are on the market, including Public Bike System, nextbike, Intrago, Smoove, and B-cycle. Arlington will keep revenues generated from the service, which include the membership and usage fees as well as advertisement revenues. The tender also offers incentives for meeting strict performance standards and fines for not doing so.

Arlington County does not allow on-street advertising with bus shelters, kiosks, billboards, and the like, so it is unable to have a bike-sharing service offered as part of an advertising contract as many cities have done. It is hoping to compensate for this by having advertisements on the bikes, as this form of advertising is legal in the public domain in Arlington, to assist with the financial sustainability of the program.

MetroBike, LLC assisted Arlington County develop its tender.

image credit: BikeArlington