London launched the Barclay’s CycleHire bike-sharing program in July 2010. With 6,000 bikes and 400 stations. The program has been booming ever since the launch with 350,000 journeys in the inaugural month, and more than 70,000 members. The bicycles are peddling throughout London with the new design created by the same creators, DeVinci Cycles, which made Bixi Montreal bikes. Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor’s Transport Advisor said to CNN that the bicycles are very durable and have a life expectancy of 15 years! The program has succeeded in getting many of London’s citizens to get up on bikes, but they seem to be running into some trouble.
Many customers are posting on Twitter some of CycleHire’s fallbacks. Some of the problems consist of: the brakes on the bikes seem to be too tight, the inability to find a docking station, heavy bikes, getting billed twice if you have two keys on one account, and that the program isn’t open to casual users or tourists yet. CycleHire is working out the flaws at the current moment and hopefully will be working flawlessly by time it opens up to tourists next year. Check out the video of Guardian’s Helen Pidd tests the CycleHire system: http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/08/londons-bike-share-programme.html
Dublin launched its own Bike Sharing DB last September 09. It now has over 40,000 subscribers to date. It recently came across its 1 millionth rental on the 14th of August, 2010. All this success is achieved in less than a year. Dublin City Council boasts that the program is “the most successful in the world by any measure.” The long three years in making the Dublin Bike Share possible, is really worth the wait today. It is said right “Patience is the key to success”. Their subscription fees are really cheap as compared to most of the Bike sharing programs all around the world. They have two subscriptions a Long Term Hire Card that cost €10 which is approximatelyonly $13 for an entire year and a 3 day ticket that cost €2 which is approximately only $3. ($ amounts may fluctuate as per the exchange rate).The first 30 minutes are free and then fee charges apply. These charges are as low as, for 1 hour it is €0.50 which is $0.63. This is unbelievable. That is why most of the people choose Bike Sharing in Dublin than any other means of transport.
This is perhaps the main component that sets DB from most of the Bike share systems in the world. DB users can also use Bike sharing in Brussels and Lyon operated by JCDecaux. What more can one ask for? Visit another city and travel around for lower rates again. These strong steady bikes help the user reach places, overcoming all traffic. Most of the young college ages students and middle aged workers who presser bike sharing are not only saving a lot for their future but also contributing in the reduction of traffic.
Dublin Bike Share can be described as: The rising success has not only motivated people to use bike sharing more but also DB itself to expand and have more bikes and stations .They are now planning to extend 20 of the stations with more bikes. So the stations right now which accommodate 20 bikes will be expanded to be having 30 bikes. 4 more stations are to be added to the city. The total number of bikes will sum upto 550. This quick success and expansion of DB was only possible because of the response of the commuters and the commuters have responded in turn because of the cheap and availability of bikes.
The new Social Bicycle System, SoBi, brings a whole new aspect to bike sharing by eliminating the idea of a station only systems. Users can now dock bicycles on any regular bike rack within the restricted riding area. This revolutionary system is made possible by the bicycles attached lock system and built in GPS.
The system depends only on these regular bicycles with the attached lock systems. Since specially designed bicycles aren’t needed, bicycle-sharing programs can save thousands of dollars. This will make these systems more cost efficient and manageable.
After an interview with the founder, Ryan Rzepecki (previously an Urban Planner for the New York Dept. of Transportation), we got some insight into his SoBi idea. He mentions that bicycles will be set under a restricted riding area so no user can ride off with the bicycle to places other people can’t reach easily. There also will be stations in high use areas, where SoBi bicycles will always be in abundance. Users can sign up online, via mobile application, or call the SoBi service line. All of his ideas seem to support realistic situations and make this system very viable for new bike-sharing programs.
A test trial will be conducted soon in New York City on a small scale system containing 20-25 bicycles. The flaws of the system will be identified in this test trial and an improved system will come out of the results. Check out Ryan’s video for more information:
CityRyde announces today that the University of Colorado at Boulder has chosen CityRyde’s Spark software to manage their Buff Bikes program which currently has 160 bicycles located at a central hub on campus. The bicycles are available free to students, faculty and staff of the University for up to 48 hours. The University has chosen the Spark software to manage their program because of the advanced features that make managing the program simple for administrators and renters.
CityRyde’s Spark software has become the leader in managing bike sharing programs at universities, small municipalities, and corporate campuses. The Spark software currently manages the University of Chicago’s ReCycles program and will be managing Boulder County, CO’s last mile bicycle solution for commuters which will incorporate low cost, automated locking mechanisms. Spark will continue to grow to additional communities to fulfill the need for a low cost solution to implement bike sharing programs.
The much anticipated London Cycle Hire bike-sharing program opens up to the city on July 30th, 2010. Barclays Bank sponsors this program. The Bank is giving a huge support in order to make sure this program is as well used as the Tube (subway), or bus systems in London.
Roads have already been painted blue with special bike lanes to give the bikers some more room and safety. These special lanes are going to hopefully spark some new bikers the confidence to share the road with drivers. A special safety and instruction video has been posted virally through the Internet and can be watched below:
London Cycle Hire has been making headway promoting their program and will certainly grow to a successful program. Anyone over 14 can rent these bicycles, so from middle school kids to grown adults will be involved in the new bicycle-sharing era. You can enlist as a member via phone (with the free app http://cyclehireapp.com ), website, or at the kiosk. So, go to the nearest kiosk on July 30th and ride around with the London Cycle Hire bicycles!!!
San Antonio, TX is the next US city to approve a bike sharing deployment. The City Council has approved the Bike sharing program after seeing an increasing amount of bicycle usage in downtown. The initial program will consist of 140 bikes at 14 locations.
“San Antonio is the perfect city to launch a bike share system with our great weather, relatively flat terrain, and many fun and interesting destinations that are easy to get to on a bike,” said City Manager Sheryl Sculley.
The bike share program in San Antonio will be structured as a non- profit, an increasing trend among cities in the US. B-cycle, who launched recently in Denver, will be supplying the kiosks and the bikes to run the system. Residents will have an option of purchasing an annual membership pass or a pas as you go plan similar to other bike sharing deployments. All bikes will be equipped with RFID chips to track the mileage, carbon offsets (non-verified) and also calories burned. Riders can track all this information through the online website.
The Boston Globe reported last Friday that the federal government has awarded $3 million to Boston’s forthcoming bike share program, which is expected to cover the capital costs of the apx. 500-bike, Bixi deployment next Spring. So… “next spring” huh? We have heard that before as CityRyde previously reported in our last blog post on the subject. With this $3 million in hand as well as another $2 million from previously awarded sponsorships and grants, however, count on a program around next Spring after all. Stakeholders anticipate the system to be an integral component to the multi-modal transportation network the City will surely soon boast as the deployment connects to the MBTA subway and bus routes.
While the programs annual membership fees are on the high side ($85) in comparison to others around the world, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, David Watson remains adamant the system will see success and a large user base, “It opens up the possibility of biking for a lot of people who either don’t have bikes or don’t think of themselves as everyday bicyclists.’’ Watson’s assurance is shared by Nicole Freedman, who runs the City’s Boston Bikes program.
While we didn’t see the system this past Spring as we hoped program pushers are well on track to show us a program by next. In the meantime the City is expected to continue their efforts in improving the City’s bike infrastructure to make it much more conducive for the bike share.
Won’t be long until we are riding the shared bikes along Bean Town’s Freedom Trail now…
From June 22nd to the 25th, Copenhagen hosted the 2010 Velo-City Bicycle Conference. Many major city representatives from different countries attended, as well as many major companies. This conference discussed several key topics essential to reducing carbon emissions from cars and the future of bike programs. Topics included: Mega-cities, campaigns for reducing short car trips. cycling in cold and hilly cities, bike-share services, green urban development, developing cycling in developing countries, road safety research, and finally cooperation between NGOs and city administrations.
Important speakers who attended and gave presentations include: Janette Sadik-Khan (Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation), John Whitelegg (visiting Professor of Sustainable Transport at Liverpool John Moores University), Lake Sagaris (Canadian urban planner and journalist), Pan Haixiao (Professor and Director of Land Use/Transport Studies at Tongji University in Shanghai), and Dr. Vandana Shiva (world-renowned Indian environmentalist and philosopher). With this world-wide cast of presenters the results from this conference were extremely important. The conclusions reached have stressed the importance of cities working with companies, the cost-effectiveness of bike sharing in certain cities such as Portland, Oregon, and the economic impact bike sharing brings to cities such as Paris. All of these discussions have yet to be officially posted but the abstracts are up online.
To look at the abstracts/PowerPoint of the conference please visit the website: http://velo-city2010.com/ and visit the programme section.
Melbourne is the first city in Australia to make transportation even more convenient for its residents. Melbourne has decided to create a bike sharing system called the Melbourne Bike Share. This will contribute to a safer, greener and faster transport system for the public. The plan is to construct 50 stations throughout the city. Using the proven Bixi system, there will be 50 stations spread throughout Melbourne with 600 bicycles to service the citizens of Melbourne.
When it comes to pricing, an annual Melbourne Bike Share Subscription cost only $50 a year and it can be used anytime, day or night. A weekly subscription cost $8.00 per week and a daily subscription cost $2.50 per day. As with most bike sharing deployments, the first 30 minutes are free.
What is interesting about this deployment is that Melbourne has a law that requires riders to wear helmets at all the time while riding a bike. Melbourne has helped to lower the burden on the subscribers as they are given a significant discount on a helmet when purchasing an annual membership. Melbourne is very excited to release this scheme and see how it affects the cities car congestion, rider’s health, and the reduction of greenhouse gasses.
Today bicyclists take to the streets to test the new bike sharing program Minneapolis has to offer. The program, Nice Ride, offers users green bicycles at 60 specially marked stations all around the city. To rent a bicycle all you have to do is sign up on the website. You can register as a yearly subscriber (for 60 dollars), a 30-day subscriber (for 30 dollars), or a 24-hr subscriber (for 5 dollars). Both the month and yearly subscribers get a special key to easily access the bikes from the station. These bikes are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, between the months of April and November.
Nice Ride even provides users with discounted safety wear. Freewheel Bike offers 20% discounts for new Nice Ride subscribers. For safety, if you don’t feel comfortable riding the streets of Minneapolis there are classes you can take with certified instructors. These classes will provide you with key techniques for safe bicycle riding. You can sign up for these classes at: www.bikewalktwincities.org/ambassador.
As part of the grand opening, an inaugural bike ride from the Central Library down Nicollet Mall to Peavey Plaza took place today, where Mayor R.T. Rybak hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the Downtown YWCA bike share station. To continue the celebrations, on June 17, a forum titled “Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around” will be taking place at the Uptown Theater at 7 pm. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, an avid cyclist and the author of “Bicycle Diaries,” will join Mayor R.T. Rybak and others at the event.
