Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
by Timothy Ericson
CityRyde and the University of Chicago, after a successful pilot program, have agreed to expand the functionality of CityRyde’s
Spark software that is used to manage the University’s bike sharing program –
ReCycles. Currently the system is managing 20 bicycles and had 400+ registered users during the pilot period.
Spark was
launched late last year in response to the increasing demand for an off-the-shelf software application to manage bike sharing deployments according to CityRyde’s CEO and Co-Founder, Timothy Ericson. The software handles the entire process including user registration, liability waiver acceptance, account management, check-in/check-out of bicycles, reporting and more. Spark is also in the process of integrating with several physical locking mechanism hardware (for e.g., wireless lock boxes) allowing for greater choice when implementing a bike sharing system.
Tags: bike sharing software, CityRyde Spark, Recycles, Spark Software, University of Chicago
Posted in Bike Sharing - Universities, Bike Sharing Software, Blog, CityRyde, Public Transportation, Sustainable Transit
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
by CityRyde
Author: Timothy Lehman
Some say “good things happen to those who wait,” and for those interested in the Philadelphia bike share feasibility study this statement holds true. After over a year of waiting, bike share enthusiasts can feel good about the breaking release of the study. Just announced earlier today, the study has concluded that bike sharing is feasible in the city of Brotherly Love.
City officials, cyclists, and enthusiasts alike all have much to be excited for with this news. The $70,000 study was funded by the William Penn Foundation.
The plan is to cover about a 15 mile radius that stretches from Center City to parts of North, South, and West Philadelphia. With 20 stations per square mile. each holding about 15 bikes, there will be roughly 1,700 bikes. Similar to most bike shares systems, the projected system is designed to serve as a solution to the final leg of trips for public transportation users. According to Alex Doty, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, “One of the things that biking can do is solve the last-mile problem that transit users have. You can avoid a transfer or a difficult connection to a subway or bus. The bike can shorten your transit ride.”
Like most third generation bike share systems, users will be able to unlock a bicycle by using a membership card or credit card. The cost is estimated to range from $72 per year to $5 a day for the user, with the first half hour being free. The project is estimated to cost $4.4 million per year.
With this announcement, Philadelphia will hopefully be moving in the right direction to meet the Mayor Michael Nutter’s goal of Philadelphia becoming the “most sustainable city in America.”
Tags: Bike Share Philadelphia, Bike Sharing Feasibility Study, CityRyde, philadelphia bike share
Posted in 3rd Generation Bike Share, Bike Sharing Report, Bike share city, Blog
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
by Jason Meinzer
In 2009, CityRyde launched Spark, the world’s first off-the-shelf software solution designed to manage bike sharing systems at universities, corporate campuses and small municipalities. Now, our newest software application built upon Spark’s infrastructure named Inspire has arrived! Inspire turns bike share rides into cash through carbon credits.
Inspire has been a work in progress by the CityRyde team over the last 2 years, backed by a robust carbon methodology which will remain in the voluntary market for now but scale into the compliance market by 2012. Inspire will undoubtedly become the gold standard for carbon credit tracking in sustainable transportation worldwide.
Watch the audio/video tour of Inspire: http://www.inspiremobility.com/the-software/
A carbon credit is a financial instrument – a commodity – representing a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One carbon credit represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent in another GHG. The worldwide carbon credit market exceeded $120 billion dollars in value in 2009, and explosive growth is anticipated into 2010 and beyond.
CityRyde Inspire integrates with existing bike sharing back-ends to access the data needed to process Inspire’s proprietary algorithms and certify the carbon credits. Every time a bike share ride is proven to have displaced a carbon-emitting mode of transportation a portion of a carbon credit is generated, and collected by CityRyde Inspire. Due to the stringent and all-inclusive measures Inspire ensures in its data point aggregation methodologies, bike share operators will be able to instantly turn the carbon credits generated from daily program operations into cash. And bike rides are merely the first application – Inspire will scale into other sustainable transportation verticals into the future such as electric scooter, car sharing, etc. The possibilities are endless…
Jason Meinzer, CityRyde COO & Co-Founder states, “Funding a bike share program is a recurring barrier to entry. Creating an additional revenue stream through the sale of carbon offset credits via Inspire will help alleviate such a financial burden, and make bike sharing in most any deployment environment that much more realistic and sustainable.”
Contact CityRyde now at info@cityryde.com to learn more… for e.g., how Inspire could bring in close to one million dollars in carbon credits through a bike share program such as the Velib in Paris.
Tags: bike share software, bike sharing software, carbon offset credit, cityryde inspire, CityRyde Spark, transportation software
Posted in 3rd Generation Bike Share, Bike Sharing Software, Blog, Carbon Emissions Reduction, CityRyde, carbon credit, carbon offset, oyster
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
by Brian
As early as next week, China will reveal yet another PBS to its growing collection of bike sharing schemes already found in cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, among others. The most recent addition will debut in Chengdu, the capital city of the Sichuan province that is home to 11 million people and located roughly 1,000 miles southwest of Beijing. Sichuan Provincial standing committee member Chen Yi states that this is one of several forthcoming initiatives slated to help the Chinese metropolis become a “low carbon city.”
Chengdu has placed bike stations in a “honeycomb” arrangement around heavily frequented areas in the city center, close to transportation hubs, shopping malls, and tourist destinations. The hexagonal shape was chosen such that all stations are equidistant from the city center. Users can access each of them through the use of state ID or other electronic access cards.
Thus far there is no indication as to how Chengdu will handle theft or vandalism of the bikes, theft remaining a persistent problem in China’s cities. How the bikes in particular and the program at large will fare in Sichuan will certainly become clearer over the next couple of months as the program gets underway!
Tags: Chengdu, China, PBS, Sichuan
Posted in 3rd Generation Bike Share, Bike share city, Blog
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
by Jason Meinzer
Post Original Author: Timothy Lehman
Famous for its scenic beauty, the City of Hangzhou lies in the Yangtze River Delta on the eastern coast of China. The city’s West Lake region is a very popular area for city dwellers and tourists to visit and sight-see. Yet until more recently, Hangzhou had become overpopulated with cars and other motor vehicles, destroying the natural beauty the city had to offer. Every day the city’s streets saw about 460,000 motor vehicles. A decision was needed to be made about City’s street overpopulation problem, and this led the Hangzhou Municipal Government to decide upon a bike sharing system.
Hangzhou’s public bike share system began on May 1, 2008. Starting with thousands of bikes throughout downtown Hangzhou, the program saw immediate success. The initial goal of the system was to solve the “final-kilometer puzzle” (the distance from the public transportation stop to the final destination). Because of this, the city conveniently placed many of the stations close by to public transportation stops. Citizens of Hangzhou, from age 16 to 70 years old, are able to rent and return bicycles with their public transportation card or Hangzhou citizenship card – all it takes is a swipe of the card to unlock the bikes. Tourists interested in renting a bike must put down a deposit of 300 yuan ($44.00 USD). The first hour is free for riders, and users are charged each hour afterwards.
According to the China information website, tourists are the first group to benefit from the system. Why? With the bike sharing system in place tourists are able to travel around the city and the beautiful West Lake area from a new perspective – a bicycle! Liu Zhuo, a tourist from Shanghai, said, “I have traveled to Hangzhou with my family several times before. It was really a headache to find a seat in parking lots in scenic areas. But renting a bicycle has no such problems. We can go wherever we want.”
Citizens of Hangzhou have greatly benefitted from the public bike share system as well. In fact, according to Lu Zhihong, deputy general manager of Hangzhou Public Transportation Corporation, each bicycle was used 0.93 times on average each day in the first few months of operation in 2008. The frequency was raised to 3.27 times in February and about 5 times in March of 2009. This led the city to add 2,400 bicycles and 11 new service outlets in April of 2009. More recently the city has made plans to add more bikes and stations, a goal of 2,000 stations and 50,000 bicycles – which would make Hangzhou’s public bike share system the largest in the world!
The original project’s goal was to solve the “final-kilometer puzzle,” yet now it seems that the projects goal is far greater than that. Just imagine if every city in the world took similar initiatives…
Source: China Information Website
Tags: Bike Share, china bike share, CityRide, CityRyde, hangzhou
Posted in 3rd Generation Bike Share, Bike share city, Blog, CityRyde
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
by CityRyde
It’s official. Nice Ride Minnesota, Bixi and the city of Minneapolis are launching their own bike share program. This system will be the nation’s first large scale non-profit bike sharing deployment, and this is a pretty big deal in US bike share circles. The Minneapolis portion of the Twin cities received the necessary key approval by the city council recently, and now it’s safe to say Nice Ride’s dream of having a 3rd generation bike share system in Minneapolis has been made a reality-the scheme is expected to be available in May 2010.
The pilot system calls for up to 80 solar powered kiosks dispensing up to 1000 bikes. The kiosks will be centered downtown, uptown, and on the University of Minnesota campus. According to Nice Ride Minnesota Executive Director, Bill Dossett, the system is designed to promote short rides. Users can pay an annual fee of $60 ($50 for students) or pay by the ride, and similar to most other 3rd generation bike share systems, users can unlock bicycles with a key card or credit card.
The project was funded by $1.75 million of the $22 million provided through Minnesota legislation to finance pilot projects that increase non-motorized transportation in Minneapolis and neighboring communities. The project will also be financed by the $1 million donation from insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield, business sponsors, membership fees, and donations from the public. In fact, CityRyde even contributed to Nice Ride Minnesota earlier in January.
“It’s an enormously huge project,” says Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak. He hopes the system will entice people to make short trips across downtown for lunch or a meeting, reducing traffic congestion. Fortunately for Rybak, we think his hope will become a reality judging by past bike share systems success.
As many North American cities are exploring the possibility of bike sharing, Nice Ride’s non-profit model will be of particular interest to the planning committees to see if it can be emulated in other cities.
Tags: BIXI, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Nice Ride
Posted in 3rd Generation Bike Share, Bike Sharing Costs, Bike Sharing People, Bike Sharing Vendor, Blog, Public Transportation, Sustainable Transit
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
by CityRyde
Small Business Commerce Association’s Award Honors the Achievement – View Official Report
SAN FRANSICO, November 7, 2009, CityRyde has been selected for the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Business consulting category by the Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA)
The Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA) is pleased to announce that CityRyde has been selected for the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Business consulting category.
The SBCA 2009 Award Program recognizes the top 5% of small businesses throughout the country. Using consumer feedback, the SBCA identifies companies that we believe have demonstrated what makes small businesses a vital part of the American economy. The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based off information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports. Award winners are a valuable asset to their community and exemplify what makes small businesses great.
The 2009 Best of Business Award program consisted of 5 million nominees across all 50 states in 2500 cities. These are businesses that are delighting their customers and providing exceptional goods and/or services. Award winners are chosen from nominees by a selection committee based off information from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, and review of over 100,000 consumer rankings and other consumer reports.
About Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA)
Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA) is a San Francisco based organization. The SBCA is a private sector entity that aims to provide tactical guidance with many day to day issues that small business owners face. In addition to our main goal of providing a central repository of small business operational advice; we use consumer feedback to identify companies that exemplify what makes small business a vital part of the American economy.
SOURCE: Small Business Commerce Association
CONTACT:
Small Business Commerce Association
Email: Press@SBCAAwards.org
URL: http://www.SBCAAwards.org
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Posted in Blog, Cityryde Press, Featured
Monday, December 7th, 2009
by Jason Meinzer
…A question CityRyde is asked almost every week.
To this end, we have decided to provide our readers the following google map which shows every North American city we are aware of that has publicly expressed an interest for a 3rd generation bike share program. By publicly, we mean a city that has either:
- Conducted and or begun a Feasibility Study
- Released an RFI
- Released an RFP
- Publicly announced their exploration of the subject
We have omitted the regions of all of our past, present and prospecting clients exploring bike sharing projects in their part of the woods. These details are of course available upon request. We have also excluded Washington, D.C. and Montreal, QC who currently have bike share programs in existence.
This map, updated as of November 6, 2009, includes a total of 26 North American cities:
- Seattle, WA
- Redmond, WA
- Portland, OR
- San Francisco, CA
- Tucsson, AZ
- Albuquerque, NM
- Denver, CO
- Minneapolis, MN
- Chicago, IL
- Philadelphia, PA
- New York City, NY
- Boston, MA
- Miami, FL
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Boulder, CO
- Calgary, Canada
- Los Angeles, CA
- Ottowa, Canada
- Vancouver, Canada
- Santa Barbara, CA
- Willmington, NC
- Arlington, VA
- Broward County, FL
- Santa Clara County, CA
- Toronto, Canada
- Palo Alto, CA
For high-level details on each location, simply click.
View North American 3rd Generation Bike Share City Prospects in a larger map
View North American 3rd Generation Bike Share City Prospects in a larger map
We warmly welcome suggestions to info@cityryde.com from all as to further details on each City and/or details on any city that we might have missed.
Tags: american bike sharing, Bike Sharing, bike sharing in america, City Ride, CityRide, north american cities interested in bike sharing, north american city bike share
Posted in 3rd Generation Bike Share, Bike share city, Blog, CityRyde
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
by CityRyde
Recently the city of Philadelphia, where CityRyde is headquartered, experienced a six day long strike by the local transit authority, SEPTA. Subways and buses stopped operating only hours before the Monday morning rush hour leaving workers scrambling for alternative modes of transportation to get to the office. The strike also left many school aged children stranded and unable to attend classes. Even non-transit riders were frustrated with huge increases in vehicular traffic on all of the city’s roads and hiways. During the strike period, bicycle ridership skyrocketed in Philadelphia as it was the only option for many commuters to reach their destinations. The strike forced many residents to view the bicycle as a primary form of transportation.
Paris, France had a similar scenario back in October of 2007 when their transit workers went on strike. However Paris commuters had an option that Philadelphia commuters did not, they have a bike sharing system. Vélib’, one of the largest bike sharing systems in the world, experienced a tremendous increased in ridership during this strike. According to a New York Times article, Vélib’ trips almost doubled to 175,000 trips a day, and this was still before the system was completely installed throughout the city. City officials even installed temporary stations throughout the city to try and curb the demand. Although many Parisians complained that bicycles were not available, they were lucky to have a bike sharing system available to them when the city was paralyzed.
During Philadelphia’s transit strike CityRyde had the opportunity to demonstrate to city commuters a fully functional bike sharing system during the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s “Bike the Strike” event. (CityRyde would like to send a special thank you to all of the staff members of the Coalition who put together the event and allowed CityRyde to demonstrate along side them.) CityRyde’s CEO and co-founder was quoted in a Philadelphia Inquirer article saying, “Bike sharing has transformed cities around the world, and we’re hoping to do the same thing in Philadelphia.” Besides showing people “there are other options out there,” today’s demo of the idea was timed “to help push it along in the City Hall,” Ericson said.
This is a wake up call to cities all over the world to look into alternative forms of transportation. Bike sharing gives residents and visitors freedom to move throughout cities on an environmental friendly, cost effective bike sharing bicycle.
CityRyde demonstrated the Samba system which is currently deployed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tags: Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Bike the Strike, City Ride, CityRide, Paris, Philadlephia, Samba, SEPTA, Timothy Ericson, Transit Strike, Velib'
Posted in Bike Legislation, Bike Sharing Event, Bike Sharing Vendor, Blog, Cityryde Press, Public Transportation, bike share demonstration
