Copenhagen Open Design Competition for a new Bike-sharing system

What does the one of the world’s most bike-friendly cities do when it wants to upgrade its 2nd generation bike-sharing system to a modern 21st Century system? Well, all you bike-sharing geeks, consultants, vendors, manufacturers, and wannabe experts, here is your chance to pedal into the breakaway. Copenhagen is having a world-class International Design Competition to create a world-class bike-sharing system!

The mayor of Copenhagen, Klaus Bondam, has put out the Invitation announcing, "In 1995, Copenhagen was the first city to introduce a modern bike share system – Bycyklen - or The City Bike. Much has happened since this Bike Share v. 1.0 was launched and, over the past ten years, many large cities now enjoy exciting, new bike share systems. From Barcelona to Beijing, a new generation of bike share systems have blossomed. To the delight of locals, tourists and commuters alike.

Copenhagen is a unique, world-class cycling city and this fact should be reflected in the city’s bike share system. Our city is the best example of how the bicycle can become the preferred form of transport in a modern city. An attractive and modern bike share system can contribute to strengthening Copenhagen’s bicycle culture. Therefore The City of Copenhagen is pleased to launch an open design competition in order to determine how a bike share system v. 3.0 would look and work in the city in the future."

Here are the rules and deadlines. You only have until mid-November to take this challenge! When other cities put out Request for Information or Request for Proposals for bike-sharing, Copenhagen keeps in forefront of world cycling with this International Design Competition.

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Dublin Gearing Up to Bike

According to The Irish Times, on September 13, JCDecaux will be launching dublinbikes in Dublin, Ireland. As the country's premiere bike-sharing program, the program should consist of 450 bikes with 40 stations.

The service will be available between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. This could miss out on the roughly 25% of the uses Velib' receives during the night when other transit services are closed.

With Dublin's population of roughly 507,000, the program's introduction of a fleet of 450 bikes will be significantly less than Paris' fleet of 20,600 in a city of 2,200,000. However, while thinking small, Jim Keoghan from the city council states, "We're hoping it is a success and it will be expanded."

TreeHugger points out, "Dublin isn't widely recognized as a cycling city," however, they want to change this. The service's website notes that cycling "is up 30% in recent years and [dublinbikes] can only make it easier for people to make more sustainable transport choices." In addition, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey, a Green party member, has been keen on improving the city's cycling infrastructure and number of people commuting by bike" with a promise of €5 million being spent this year on cycling infrastructure improvements.

image credit: dublinbikes

Public Health Benefits of Bike-sharing

Recently, the City of Paris gave out medals to the most prolific users of Vélib’ since the system began on July 15, 2007. The “gold medal” was awarded to William, a 40 year old with 3,813 trips. Peter, another 40 year old with 3,774 trips of pedaling, won the silver medal and Thierry, the youngster at 29, snagged the bronze with 3,692 trips on Paris’ grey bikes. To achieve this quantity of trips, the medalists were using Vélib’ at least 5 times each day.

These individuals exemplify the health benefits of bike-sharing and of cycling in general. The men are now in great physical shape. William lost 15 pounds pushing pedals in Paris. (Try to say that ten times fast.

Their accomplishment also points to the healthiness of particular bike-sharing programs. A key factor in a healthy system is the number of usages of bikes per day. Paris, with the help of these guys, has usages 5 to 7 times a day. Lyon averages 7 times a day. Montréal within a few weeks of its launch had 3.5 usages a day. Barcelona tops all with an average of 10 usages per bike per day with spikes of 20 per day on beautiful beach days!

source and image: Velib et Moi - Le Blog

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

It's bIXI Bike-sharing for Boston

It was announced in the Montréal Gazette and the Boston Globe this morning that Boston is to follow London in choosing the bIXI bike-sharing system for the Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council bike-sharing program. The program’s plan is to begin with approximately 2,500 bikes in 290 stations then increasing to 5,000 bikes with around 475 stations through Boston, Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville, MA. As with London, the bIXI system in Boston is to begin around May 2010. An update on today's bi-city bIXI bonanza is online from bIXI.

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

London Calling: Montréal's bIXI for Bike-sharing

Today Transport for London (TfL) chose Serco to manage, service and bring to life London's Cycle Hire scheme and Serco has partnered with Montréal’s bIXI system to set up the 6,000 bicycle fleet with 400 docking stations. TfL expects to have the system quickly operational with the goal of May 2010. With the bIXI's drop in place docking stations, that should be easily obtainable. The bike hire scheme is part of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s £111 million bicycle improvements for the UK’s capital. The press release from TfL Cycle Hire quotes Mayor Johnson, "They (Serco and bIXI) can't wait to get cracking on helping us get thousands more Londoners on two wheels and I'm sure that the cycling revolution taking place in the Capital will rapidly become the envy of the world."

Even with the easily installed bIXI stations and bikes, bike-sharing might not come as easily as it should, central London is composed of different “councils.” According to Global New Clickpress, the councils of Camden and Westminster have been slow to approve the placement of docking stations on the streets in their jurisdictions. The councils fear the lost automobile parking revenue from metered spaces. Undoubtedly these councils do not realize the idea is to reduce the amount of automobiles and the congestion in the streets!

The Bike-sharing Blog commends London on its choice and looks forward to riding a London bIXI along the Thames.

Source: TfL

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Viva Ciudad de México! Bike-sharing coming to Mexico City

On Monday of this week, Marcelo Ebrard a government official of Mexico City announced the December 2009 start of a “sistema de bicicletas públicas” from SmartBike of Clear Channel Outdoor México for the south western part of central Mexico City. The system will start with 1,114 bicycles in 84 stations. El Sol de México reports Ebrard stating, “the aim is to promote cycling in the city, for this mode of transport to move from 1.2 percent current use to 5 percent, especially for short distances. [It's] expected to have 24,000 members in the first year of operation [and] the bikes are an extension of public transport to be used by citizens to exit the Metro, Metrobus, or trolleybus to reach their destinations, without the use of motorized vehicles to travel a few kilometers.”

The annual suscription will cost 200 pesos (US$15) entitling the card holder, pictured here, to ½ hour of free usage. With Smartbike the Mexico City government is trying to reduce automobile congestion in the largest capital city in the world. When operational at the end of this year, it will be the second largest bike-sharing program in the Americas.

Update: August 14, 2009, Clear Channel Outdoor says the contract for the system in Mexico City allows for expansion up to 6,000 bikes in 400 stations.

Image: El Sol de México

Russell Meddin http://www.bikesharephiladelphia.org/

O Yes, OBIS!

With at least 125 3rd generation bike-sharing programs around the world, we have accumulated much experience and data about bike-sharing and its impacts on cities and towns. Now wouldn’t it be great to have this data at your fingertips? Look no more, thanks to a project called “Optimizing Bike Sharing in European Cities” or OBIS of the Intelligent Energy - Europe program of the European Union.

According to their website, “OBIS will promote and disseminate the project results to a wide audience, with the aim of raising awareness of the opportunities offered by bike-sharing, as an innovative individual system of public transport.”

“The OBIS Project will result in publication of a manual presenting good practices, success factors and market potential. This will help interested parties to implement efficient bike-sharing schemes, to identify needs and options and prepare appropriate implementation strategies.”

Looking through the data sets of bike-sharing programs in nine European countries - from Sweden to Italy and Spain to Poland, I’m pressed with all the data the project has collected so far. This data includes everything from administrative aspects of running a program and customer pricing to financing and results. While the spreadsheets are being provided presently, they are works in progress with OBIS continuing to fill out the expansive data sets for each of the countries. Already the data is invaluable in better understanding the positive impact bike-sharing has had on European communities and likely would have on communities around the world.

image credit: OBIS

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

Mega Being Redefined by Hangzhou

Paris' Velib' defined the first mega bike-sharing program with 20,600 bikes in the city and another 3,000 bikes in the suburbs for a total of 23,600 bikes in the metropolitan area. Alert reader Xin Zhou from George Mason University has informed The Bike-sharing Blog that Hangzhou, China is in the process of redefining the mega program with its plans to expand its existing program to 50,000 bikes and 2,000 stations by the end of the year, according to The China Internet Information Center. With 50,000 bikes, "[p]eople will find one service outlet every 100 meters downtown," states the article. Presently, stations in Paris are roughly every 300 meters.

" 'Public bicycle outlets will become as popular as public telephone booths along streets. In the future, residents will largely ride bicycles to go shopping in food markets and supermarkets, or to go to the office,' said Lu Zhihong, deputy general manager of the Hangzhou Public Transport Corporation.

The state-owned Hangzhou Public Bicycle Transport Service Development Co. Ltd., which "is responsible for buying bicycles, setting out service outlets, and employing staff" has a new take on their proprietary bike-sharing system. A point-of-sale machine is imbedded into the bike. "Our leasing system is more convenient than that in Europe," said Zhihong.

Healthy competition is always a good thing.

image credit: Shanghai Daily

UPDATE 8/3/09: Due to a translation error, the point-of-sale machine "imbedded into the bike" as described above is not actually part of the bike, but rather it is adjacent to the bike in a system that resembles Velib'. (Although the former method would be much cooler.) Customers may use the program's "Z card" or local transport "IC card" to rent a bike. Credit cards are not accepted on the system, rather only pre-paid cards.

The TIGER Roars in Washington, D.C.

The Washington, D.C. region's Transportation Planning Board today approved a $10M grant request for a regional bike-sharing program as part of a package of transit projects to improve mobility in the region. The multi-modal, multi-jurisdictional package includes bus rapid transit better connecting the suburbs to the central business district using Federal stimulus funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's (ARRA) TIGER (Transportation Improvements Generating Economic Recovery) program. Should the Federal Transit Administration approve the grant, the urban core of the Washington, D.C region, which also includes Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia; and Bethesda and Silver Spring, Maryland would receive funding for about 1,600 bikes and 160 stations. Jurisdictions outside of the urban core also requested to be part of this grant application.

A regional bike-sharing program would provide Washingtonians another fast, green, and healthy way to get around town, while encouraging additional bus, subway, and train trips. Along with providing a new transit network in its own right, bike-sharing also extends the reach of these complementary transit modes by offering an easy way to reach these stations with a relatively low-cost "first mile/last mile" solution.

According to The Examiner, "Chris Zimmerman, who is a voting member on the board [from Arlington County], said he thinks the bike system will help make local public transportation complementary. 'It's the synergy among those things that are so important,' Zimmerman said. 'It encourages people to adapt to lifestyles other than getting in a car and driving somewhere.' "

As Washington, D.C. was the first to have a 3rd generation bike-sharing program in North America and Arlington, Virginia is rushing to be the third (after Montreal), the Washington region hopes to create a model for other North American regions wanting to implement multi-jurisdictional bike-sharing programs of their own.

Washington, D.C.-based MetroBike, LLC (the provider of The Bike-sharing Blog) is proud to assist Arlington and the region in progressing towards a full-scale regional bike-sharing service.

image: Treehugger

Vélib' Rides into Two Years in the Bike-sharing World

In Paris today, the second anniversary of bike-sharing with Vélib' was celebrated. On 15 July 2007, the system started with 1000 bikes in 750 stations and kept its promise of having 20,000 bikes in 1,450 stations by the end of the year. It greets its second anniversary with 24,000 bikes and 1800 stations serving Paris and its immediate suburbs. With 54,000,000 usages in two years, Vélib’ is the gold standard in Public Use Bicycles. On average, during the last two years, every day 9500 single or seven day subscriptions were sold from the stations on the street.

image: francesoir.fr

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Kickin' it into High-gear this Summer in Montreal

BIXI has become so popular in Montreal that the city will be expanding its bike-sharing service from 3,000 to 5,000 bikes ahead of time. The expansion was to occur next year, but due to the program's successes and the public demand, Phase II of adding 2,000 more bikes into unserved parts of the city will be done this summer. The following is a press release from Stationnement de Montréal, the operator of BIXI:

"In response to numerous requests from Montréal boroughs and residents, Stationnement de Montréal has been authorized by the city’s executive committee to launch phase II of BIXI this summer.

"This second phase will involve adding 2,000 BIXI bikes and 100 new stations in the boroughs of Mercier/Hochelaga‐Maisonneuve, Côte‐des‐Neiges/Notre‐Dame‐de‐Grâce, Villeray/Saint‐Michel Parc‐Extension, and Le Sud‐Ouest. More stations will also be added in Outremont and Rosemont‐ La Petite‐Patrie to complete the deployment in those boroughs. In all, the service will count 5,000 bikes distributed among 400 stations.

"With this second phase, the project budget increases from $15 million to $23 million.

"When the project was launched this spring, Montrealers immediately took ownership of the service. In just seven weeks, they have made more than 220,000 individual trips covering over a million kilometres. “Adding more bikes and stations will allow us to serve a larger percentage of the public and to be present in more high‐traffic areas, such as near educational institutions, public markets, and tourist attractions such as the Biodome,” declared Alain Ayotte, executive vice‐president of Stationnement de Montréal.

“ 'We are extremely pleased by the resounding success of this project, in which we believed from the very start,' declared Jean Simon, president, Primary Metal – North America. “We are delighted to be part of this innovative service, which helps make Montréal an even more enjoyable place to live and work. Our support of BIXI is in line with Rio Tinto Alcan’s commitment to environmental sustainability and fighting climate change.”

Update: Good news: In the almost two months of service, the over 225,000 BIXI trips were taken by almost 47,000 users of which over 6,300 are long term subscribers.
Not so good news: At a recent inspection of 10% of BIXI stations by reporters of La Presse, they found 1 in 5 bikes in disrepair and some docking racks vandalized and unusable. Stationnement de Montréal says that it has technicians out daily.

image credit: The Monitor (ironically from an article titled "The West End to remain Bixi-less until next year")

Bike-sharing as sweet as Swiss Chocolate

With world renowned precision, the Swiss are beginning bike-sharing in the cities along Lake Geneva. The first part of the system opened last week in Lausanne, Lausanne Roule, and will have 165 bikes in 14 stations in three municipalities by July 15th and 370 bikes by the fall. At Vevey for those who have a sweet tooth, there are bike stations at the International Headquarters of the chocolate giant Nestlé. Switzerland is a confederation of cantons or states; it appears that Swiss bike-sharing is being set up as a confederation of systems. The national subscription RFID (radio frequency identification) Card of Lausanne Roule can be used in the member cities of Suisse Roule: Geneva, Bern, Neuchâtel and Zurich. Not all these cities have 3rd generation systems yet, most are run manually. The news service, 24 Heures , reports that in the Lausanne program, the first 30 minutes of use is free, then each subsequent hour is CH₣ 1 (a little less than US$1.00). The regional daily subscription is CH₣ 5, the monthly is CH₣ 15 and the yearly is CH₣ 35. For national use, the yearly subscription is CH₣ 50.

The bikes are specifically designed for Switzerland and carry advertising. Unlike most bike-sharing bikes, there is a basket in the rear rather than in the front. The docking stations are a similar system to the Italian Bicincitta. Suisse Roule is set up as a nonprofit agency. It has both government and private sponsorship. Three quarters of its revenue comes from the ad sales on the bikes and user fees.

Watch the building of the system:

Images: 24 Heures
Video: Suisseroule

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org

Washington Bike-sharing Survey Results Are In

The Washington, D.C. SmartBike program survey results are now complete and the District of Columbia Department of Transportation is kind to share them with The Bike-sharing Blog readers. The SmartBike D.C. program is nearly one year old with its birthday coming up in August. Of the 1,000 or so members of the program, 333 responded to the survey. The SmartBike D.C. program is in its pilot stage with 120 bikes, so these results may not broadly apply to other programs, but the data is interesting nonetheless.

A few points I found particularly interesting:

Question #2: A majority of the respondents use the bikes less than once per week (62%). This is likely due to the lacking availability of stations. With only 10 stations in the pilot program, most of the respondents find their needs not met as station coverage is poor. However, about a third use the bike 1 - 3 times per week (28%).

Question #3: A majority of respondents use the bikes for social purposes (48%) while commuting is the second most common use (41%).

Question #4: Nearly 70% of bike-sharing trips would have been done by foot had the bikes not been available. However, bike-sharing pulled 16% of the respondents away from driving a personal car for their trip and 19% away from a taxi.

Question #7: Trips combining bike-sharing and the subway or bus was low. A smartcard usable on all three systems, like the D.C. region’s SmarTrip card, could improve these numbers. Also, more stations at transit-accessible and non-transit accessible locations could improve this.

Question #8: 60% already own a bike and 40% don't own a bike. This affirms the belief that people with bikes would use the system. Also, with 40% not owning a bike, bike-sharing is creating bike trips that otherwise wouldn't be made.

This first survey of a 3rd generation bike-sharing program in North America is helpful in guiding its growth and that of other programs. Overall, it says that bike-sharing is working on this side of the pond too and that’s good news.

UPDATE 7/12/10: The results are now here.
image credit: Gwadzilla

Bike-share as Art

The prototype bicycle for Veloway’s new bike-sharing system has its art début today in the exhibit Bicycle: people + ideas in motion Philadelphia at The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design.

The new bike-sharing system has its street début as Vélo Bleu next month in Nice, France. This system is the progressive evolution of Veloway’s OYBike in the United Kingdom and GreenBike at a university in Illinois. The system has solar powered stations with a multi use cable lock system for station docking or securing the bike while in use. The bikes are accessed by either a subscriber RFID card or by mobile telephone. If over the summer you are in Philadelphia come see the bike at Moore, or if you are so lucky to be on the Côte d’Azur take a spin on a Vélo Bleu.

Vélo Bleu starts on July 17. Sign-up after June 22 at VeloBleu.org.

Image: Veloway

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org