A Historical Narrative
Born in November of 2007, CityRyde’s original mission was, “To maximize the environmental, economic and social benefits of sustainable transportation by deploying a novel, best-of-breed, world-class bicycle sharing solution that’s both scalable and self-sustainable.” Enamored by the varying bike sharing implementations observed throughout their travels in Europe, and summoned by the pains of their nation’s transportation infrastructure, the co-founders embarked on a journey to bring bike sharing to the United States.
Everything began to fall into place from business development to vendor relationships, and it seemed clear that the time was right for bike sharing to complement existing public transportation systems across the country. After a few months of exhaustive research on the business model reality showed its face. Entering the industry was not so easy after all, mainly due to the fact bike sharing in and of itself had not been proven profitable. Consequently, bike sharing providers had setup a structure in which they received street furniture advertising space in exchange for delivering a city-wide program. In order to proliferate into the US market, bike sharing required creative financing solutions to be affordable for cities while remaining cost-effective for the bicycle sharing providers. Dedicated to set themselves apart from their competitors by ridding their business model of such an unattractive reliance on ad-space contracts, CityRyde decided to move no further forward until they solved the mystery of making bike sharing profitable.
Enter April of 2008… Eureka! The answer lied in the component of the bike sharing stations that were utilized to manage, release, and check-in the bicycles – the unmanned kiosk. By incorporating innovative revenue streams into the kiosks themselves, CityRyde had solved the mystery in making bike sharing profitable. In doing so, CityRyde was beautifully poised to move forward in seeking funds for their first critical-mass bike-sharing deployment. Confident in the viability of their strategic path forward, CityRyde began to actively seek funding.
By November 2008, CityRyde had come to the realization that raising adequate funds for the bike sharing program in a plunging economy was unrealistic. The capital costs necessary to develop and execute the proposed program throughout their market was just too costly – in the tens of millions. As a result, a key strategic decision was made to make the business leaner; recession-resistant. CityRyde listened to their advisors and prospective investors alike. In an effort to drastically mitigate the capital costs necessary to start-up, CityRyde decided to step out of the bike-sharing industry and make it their go-to-market by focusing their efforts on selling their “special sauce” – their subject matter expertise… their core. CityRyde channeled their knowledge, passion and energy for sustainable transportation on improving existing solutions and helping to ensure the successes of future bike sharing implementations. In doing so, CityRyde went from “doing” to “facilitating” bike sharing. Oddly enough CityRyde’s former competitors were now their customers. CityRyde was then established as a bike sharing consultancy with a software development arm to complement their efforts in the industry.
Passionate, energetic, and ready to make bike sharing a reality in the United States, CityRyde’s newly founded mission moving into 2009 is, “To enable and maximize the environmental, economic and social benefits of bicycle sharing by consulting on best practices and releasing core software technologies to ensure self-sustaining and successful program implementations.”
Since the change in their core focus, CityRyde has been recognized as the world’s premier bike sharing consultancy. The team holds a monthly webinar with unique topic each month, free of charge, intended for all those interested in learning more about bike sharing. CityRyde has produced a report entitled “Bicycle Sharing Systems Worldwide: Selected Case Studies” where the major vendors and their flagship deployments are analyzed. CityRyde is regularly quoted in news outlets around the world as experts in the industry including, but not limited to US News and World Report, Fast Company and Entrepreneur Magazine. CityRyde is a defined, trusted and influential name in the bike share movement who boasts a team of credible leaders and subject matter experts well connected to key thought leaders in sustainable transportation worldwide.
As the largest bike sharing consultancy in the world CityRyde has all of the knowledge in house needed to deploy a successful bike sharing system.
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