The bikesharing thread

[ColDayMan]

Dayton just opened up this weekend. So now all three of my regional cities (Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton) have bikeshare.

[M II A II R II K]

Bikeshare systems: Recent research on their growth, users’ demographics and their health and societal impacts

Read More: http://journalistsresource.org/studi...cietal-impacts

.....

Overall findings on bikeshare growth and system size:

- Bike sharing systems have increased rapidly since the mid-2000s, growing from 13 in 2004 to 855 a decade later. Of these, 54 are in the United States. The countries with the largest number of systems are China (237), Italy (114) and Spain (113). The number of bicycles observed often differs from those reported by operators.

- The systems with the highest number of observed bicycles were Paris (17,902), London (9,901), Changshu (5,924), New York (5,233), Barcelona (5,115), Zhongshan (5,110), Brussels (3,742), and Montreal (3,594). Other leading U.S. systems include Washington, D.C. (2,596), Minneapolis (1,446), and Boston (1,077).

- Current systems, referred to as “third generation,” are characterized by automated credit card payments, technologies such as GPS that enable the tracking of bicycles, and mobile applications that show the availability of bikes and available docks in real time. Looking forward, fourth-generation bikeshare could include dockless systems and improved transit integration.

Usage:

- The standard metric for comparing the usage of different bikeshare systems is the number of trips per day per bicycle. “Barcelona is the most heavily used across the year, with New York City’s Citi Bike achieving a remarkable four trips per day per bike in its first full month (May 2013), and almost doubling by September.

- Paris has the highest peak, reaching eight trips per day per bike in September. Washington, D.C., consistently reached four to five trips per day per bike in summer and even in their sometimes icy winters have at least twice the usage of Australian BSPs during their busiest months (January/February).”

- Usage between systems can vary significantly, but generally peaks between 7 and 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays; on weekends, usage is often strongest in the middle of the day. The average ride duration is between 16 and 22 minutes, with casual users typically taking longer trips than annual members.

What users are looking for:

- Convenience is a significant factor in bikeshare use. In 2013, Washington, D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare surveyed its some 11,100 members; 69% of those responding said that getting around fast and easily was a “very important” part in their motivation.

- Lower-income users cited the importance of saving money compared with other transportation options. In a study of London’s system, members who resided in poorer areas had higher trip rates than those living in more affluent suburbs.

- The distance between users’ homes and the nearest docking station is an important predictor for bikeshare membership. For example, Montreal residents living within 500 meters of a docking station were 3.2 times more likely to have used Bixi, the city’s bikeshare system. Consequently, system density is a key factor in overall usage.

- Trip purpose varies depending on the type of user and other factors. For Capital Bikeshare, the last trip for 43% of long-term members was work-related; for short-term users, work trips averaged just 2%. In London, 52% of rides of long-term users were work related, with no other purpose reaching 10%. In Brisbane, 65% of trips were for “leisure or sightseeing.”

User demographics:

- Compared to the general population, bikeshare members tend to earn more and be better educated, work full-time or part-time, and are more likely to be male than female. The specifics vary by system, however: For example, a Capital Bikeshare survey found that in comparison to regular bicycle riders, “users were more likely to be female, younger and own fewer cars and bicycles.” Users were likely to have lower average incomes than regular cyclists, but higher than the city’s general population. In London, early adopters were disproportionately wealthy, but from 2010 to 2013, the proportion of users from low-income areas doubled, from 6% to 12%.

- “In countries with low levels of general cycling, such as the U.K., the USA and Australia, between 65% and 90% of cycling trips are by men, while in strong cycling countries such as the Netherlands, women cycle more than men. Unsurprisingly therefore, BSPs in countries with low cycling usage have lower levels of female participation. For instance, less than 20% of trips by registered users of the London BSP are by women, though this proportion rises slightly when looking at casual users.”

- Bikeshare users’ ethnicity often differs from that of the general population: In London, 88% of users identify as white, compared to 55% of residents. In Washington, D.C., only 3% of users are African-American (the U.S. Census notes that African-Americans make up 49.5% of the city’s population.)

Health impacts:

- Depending on the mode substitution — which form of transport biking may displace — “bikeshare was found to have a positive impact of physical activity, leading to an additional 74 million minutes of physical activity in London, [and] 1.4 million minutes of physical activity in Minneapolis/St. Paul, for 2012.” If the user had walked previously, there might be a decrease, but substitution from transit and car use led to increased activity.

- Bikeshare users appear less likely to be injured in crashes than private bike riders. A study of hospital data from five U.S. cities with BSPs, as well as five cities without BSPs during a two-year period before BSP implementation and a year after, found that there was a “dramatic reduction” in the total number of recorded injuries after bikeshare systems were introduced. “This is consistent with the so-called ‘safety in numbers’ phenomenon, in which a rise in the amount of cycling does not lead to a proportional rise in the number of injuries.”

- Despite having the lower injury rates, bikeshare users are less likely than private cyclists to wear helmets: In New York City, approximately 85% of Citi Bike users do not wear a helmet, and the rate is 45% for Capital Bikeshare. Helmet usage rates vary by the type of membership: A 2013 study found that 63% of long-term subscribers did not wear helmets, rising to 94% for short-term users. “An explanation for this difference might be that short-term subscribers may be more likely to take spontaneous trips, in which they did not have a helmet with them.”

- Rather than increasing compliance, mandatory helmet laws tend to decrease bike usage. This may be one of the reasons for the low rates in Australia, which has a national helmet law — the systems in Melbourne and Brisbane average around 0.8 and 0.3 trips per day per bike, far below the performance of bikeshare in other countries. As a preemptive move to boost usage levels, Tel Aviv and Mexico City repealed their mandatory helmet laws.
System impacts:

- Bikeshare primarily replaces trips that would have been taken by, in order, public transportation, walking and driving. An multi-city analysis showed that in all but one city, bikeshare systems reduced vehicle kilometers travelled. The exception was London, which had low substitution rates from cars and a large coverage area, requiring substantial rebalancing efforts.

System impacts:

- Bikeshare primarily replaces trips that would have been taken by, in order, public transportation, walking and driving. An multi-city analysis showed that in all but one city, bikeshare systems reduced vehicle kilometers travelled. The exception was London, which had low substitution rates from cars and a large coverage area, requiring substantial rebalancing efforts.

- “Rebalancing” continues to be a challenge for operators — moving bikes from full racks to those without bicycles, so that users always have a bike to take, or can always find an empty dock. Research has focused on the role of topography (users tend to like to roll downhill rather than pedal up, for example) and weather, and the potential of incentives to encourage users to rebalance the system themselves. “The results suggest that while price incentives may be sufficient on weekends, usage patterns on weekdays are such that a combination of operator and user redistribution is required to maintain an adequate level of service.”

.....

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

Dayton just opened up this weekend. So now all three of my regional cities (Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton) have bikeshare.

Portland, for the record, still doesn't have one.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Portland, for the record, still doesn't have one.

Portland, ME was planning for a bike share system in 2013... though I can't find any information about it since then.

http://www.portlandmaine.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7119

[mrnyc]

more citi-biking per the nypost:


Citi Bike coming to Upper West Side

By Rebecca HarshbargerMay 13, 2015 | 9:08am

Almost forty new Citi Bike stations will be rolling into the Upper West Side as early as late summer, city officials revealed on Tuesday night.

Some of the proposed locations by the DOT and Citi Bike for the two-wheelers include West 72nd Street near Riverside Park, West 87th on the corner of West End Avenue, and West 92nd Street near Riverside Drive.

Community Board 7, which goes from West 59th Street to 110th Street, will review the spots and give the DOT a final recommendation in June.

“There’s a lot of balls in the air, we want to see where they land,” said John Frost, the director of the bike-share program for the Department of Transportation.

The proposed Upper West Side stations are part of Citi Bike’s expansion from 6,000 bikes at 330 stations citywide to 12,000 bikes and 700 stations by 2017.

Some residents were frustrated that there weren’t many stations close to subway stations, so that riders could break up their commutes.

“You should be able to walk out of the subway and see a Citi Bike station,” said Ken Coughlin, a community board member.

Others were frustrated that the DOT said it did not know how many parking spaces would be converted into stations.

“There’s no parking on the Upper West Side, for residents or people who work in the neighborhood,” said one resident, who did not want to give her name. “Everybody has nowhere to go.”

The DOT has refused to release since the ride-share launched how many parking spaces Citi Bike has been given for the stations, even though it is a form of public subsidy.

Earlier this year, Upper West Side residents looked at 500 possible sites and told the city what they loved and hated. Planning for the docks in the neighborhood began as early as 2012.

[Londonee]

Nice video by StreetFilms showcasing Philly's bike scene and highlighting the launch of Philly's Bike Share program - Indego.

Video Link

https://vimeo.com/127457417

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Portland, ME was planning for a bike share system in 2013... though I can't find any information about it since then.

http://www.portlandmaine.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7119

Wow, if Portland ME can have one, then even Halifax could have one! Can you just imagine.

[mrnyc]

from last fall:


New bike-sharing program expands today to more Cleveland neighborhoods


Cleveland's young bike-sharing network is expanding to three new neighborhoods today, less than six weeks after the program's launch in Ohio City and at the Superior Viaduct. A bike station from the September roll-out of the Zagster rental system is shown here, in the alley between the Market Garden Brewery and the West Side Market in Ohio City. (Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer)

Print Email Alison Grant, The Plain Dealer By Alison Grant, The Plain Dealer
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on October 17, 2014 at 7:41 AM, updated May 06, 2015 at 8:00 PM
|

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The bike-sharing program that zipped into Cleveland less than six weeks ago is already expanding past its initial launch site of Ohio City.

Sponsors of the Zagster bike rental stations will announce three new locations today:

-- A downtown station on West 6th Street sponsored by Barley House Cleveland

-- A Tremont station, located in front of Civilization Café on West 11th Street, sponsored by Tremont West Development Corporation, Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, Platform Brewery and Civilization Café/City Roast Coffee

-- A University Circle station at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Cornell Road, sponsored by Courtyard by Marriott Cleveland University Circle

Sixteen bikes will be stationed among the three new sites and available for rental beginning at noon today. The expansion brings Zagster's city-wide fleet to 50 bikes.

The bike-share program got underway Sept. 10 with 34 of the light-framed Breezer-brand bikes scattered among five rental stations in Ohio City and one at the Superior Viaduct.

Initial sponsors were Justin Carson, a co-owner of Platform Beer Co.; Graham Veysey and Marika Shioiri-Clark of the Hingetown area of Ohio City; Sam McNulty of Bar 25 LLC and Market Garden Brewery; Daniel Brennan, chief marketing officer of Skylight Financial Group; Rafid Fadul, a Cleveland Clinic doctor and manager of Left Side Developments LLC, which bought the Superior Viaduct Lofts in November; Brian Zimmerman, chief executive of Cleveland Metroparks; and Tom McNair, interim director of Ohio City Inc.

"The initial launch did exactly what we wanted it to do – drive awareness and spur additional interest in membership and sponsorship," Timothy Ericson, co-founder and chief executive of Zagster, said in a prepared statement. "We're thrilled that we can expand to additional areas of the city to make the program more applicable to more residents this year while we work on our expansion plans for next year."

In an email Ericson expanded on the pace of business so far: "It is safe to say that they are averaging one rental per bike per day on "bikeable" days (days that lend themselves to biking). Obviously, on less favorable days they see a little less."

Ericson said Zagster is working with several organizations on additional sponsorship deals but is not currently releasing with whom. The Breezers typically carry the logo of their business sponsor.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based bike-sharing company has specialized in partnering with corporations including General Motors and Hyatt, and campuses, including Yale and Duke universities. The Cleveland program is unusual because of its private sector backing.

Jacob VanSickle, executive director of Bike Cleveland, said the bike-sharing venture in Cleveland is getting positive reviews from users. He said proponents anticipate that ridership data from the early stages of the program will help build a case for a city-wide bike-share system in Cleveland.

The nimble and low-cost nature of Zagster's model -- bikes can be rented with a mobile app and are tethered to minimalist bike stations instead of the expensive, touch-screen docking systems found in cities such as Boston and New York -- makes installation of new stations easy and fast.

A bike-share feasibility study by Cleveland's Office of Sustainability found that Cleveland could support a system of 770 to 1,400 rental bikes based at between 77 and 140 stations in five neighborhoods.

Cleveland said early this year it plans to more than double the amount of bike-friendly routes in town, adding 70 miles of dedicated lanes, trails and pavement markings by the end of 2017.

It costs $3 an hour to rent one of the Breezers, with a cap at $24 for up to 24 hours. A $15 monthly or $75 annual fee includes unlimited rides under one hour, with additional hours being charged at $3 an hour to the maximum $24.

Bikes can be taken one way or round trip, but must be returned to a Zagster bike location. A map of locations is available online at www.zagster.com/Cleveland.

[Evergrey]

mrnyc: do you have a map of the Cleveland system?

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

mrnyc: do you have a map of the Cleveland system?

no, but i see the locations are indicated on an interactive map on the zagster site link above. i also put up an article with maps of bike routes over on the general urban cycling thread.

[M II A II R II K]

MTC Gives Green Light to Major Bike Share Expansion

Read More: http://mtc.ca.gov/news/current_topic.../bikeshare.htm

Bike sharing will expand tenfold in the Bay Area under a plan approved unanimously by the MTC Commission today. The augmented program would continue bike sharing in the current participating cities of San Jose and San Francisco while also for the first time bringing bike sharing across the Bay into the East Bay cities of Berkeley, Emeryville and Oakland.

- The expansion plan would increase the current fleet of 700 bikes to 7,000, making this the second largest bike share program in the nation. At a press conference following the Commission action, Motivate unveiled the next generation of bike share bicycles, which are specially built to withstand the elements and heavy use on all terrains (see sidebar). Motivate also introduced an online portal where residents can recommend locations for new Bay Area Bike Share stations, at suggest.bayareabikeshare.com.

- Under the public/private arrangement, the 7,000 bike program will operate with no financial support from the public sector, relying instead on member/use fees and sponsorships. In addition, MTC is committing $4.5 million for capital costs involved with operating bike sharing in emerging communities beyond the five cities included in original Motivate proposal. --- “We’re talking about creating the second largest bike sharing program in the U.S., and it’s going to happen fast,” said Jay Walder, president and CED of Motivate, who flew in for the event. “It’s not just a form of transportation, it puts a smile on people’s faces.”

- The agreement with Motivate calls for increasing San Francisco’s fleet to 4,500 bikes (from a current 328), and San Jose’s to 1,000 bikes (from 129 currently). Another 1,400 bikes would be deployed to the East Bay — 850 in Oakland, 100 in Emeryville and 400 in Berkeley — with the placement of an additional 150 to be determined. Plans call for installing at least a quarter of the bikes by June 1, 2016. The remainder would be phased in, with the system complete by November 1, 2017. East Bay cities would see build out by the end of 2016. Participating cities could invest in additional bikes beyond these numbers.

.....

[M II A II R II K]

Seattle proposes ‘massive’ Pronto Cycle Share expansion

Read More: http://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2015/...are-expansion/

Pronto Cycle Share is an amazing transportation tool, but only if it’s limited service area fills a hole in your specific trip. If you live in the service area, it’s amazing. If you are headed to a city center destination that is an awkward distance from an express transit route, bike share can be a fast and easy way to cover that last piece of your trip.

But the biggest problem with Pronto is that the service area is simply too small to meet most people’s needs. And under the current business model, the system would expand slowly over time as more private sponsorship investments or city budget line items lead the way. It’s a plan that creates solid benefits for relatively little public investment, but it’s not a plan that can truly revolutionize transportation and low-income access to bicycling in Seattle.

That’s why the city has put together a visionary plan for a massive, fast expansion of Pronto that would increase the service area from five square miles to 42 square miles, reaching from Northgate to Rainier Beach to Alki. The number of stations would increase from 50 to 250, and the percentage of Seattle residents within walking distance of a station would go from 14 percent to 62 percent.

“Having a massive expansion of the bike share will make it really functional public transit,” said SDOT Director Scott Kubly. “Bike share is a great way to expand the reach of transit” because it helps connect more homes and destinations within reach of a high-quality express transit route. It’s a way to fill the “last mile” and “first mile” problems of transit trips, where slow local buses or long transfer waits make transit use less appealing and effective.

On top of all this, the city would also roll out electric assisted bikes in the fleet, which will be especially helpful for stations in very hilly areas and for users who have trouble climbing hills or going longer distances. The e-bikes “will effectively flatten the city,” said SDOT Director Scott Kubly, and “open it up to people of different ages and abilities and different levels of fitness.” Kubly said studies looking at the effect of e-bikes in Norway showed that people took 50 percent more trips and traveled distances twice as far, an effect more pronounced in women.

It’s possible that all 2,500 bikes in the system would have pedal assist power, though it could also be mixed. The city has not identified exactly which maker they would want to utilize for the e-bike system. --- “There are a number of manufacturers debuting e-bike bike share systems this year for 2016 launches,” said SDOT Spokesperson Norm Mah. “We are watching all of them to see what makes the most sense. There is an argument both for having 100 percent e-bikes for consistency, as well as for less to accommodate those that want to pedal.”

.....

[202_Cyclist]

In L.A., efforts are afoot to make bike share a genuine part of the transit network

By Yonah Freemark
Aug. 3, 2015
The Transport Politic


Image courtesy of the Transport Politic.

"You might say that bike sharing has conquered the world, invading city after city since the first modern systems featuring information technology opened in Europe in the 1990s. Now more than 40 U.S. cities have systems in operation. They’ve been attracted to the relative ease of implementing bike sharing, the low costs of operation, and the popular interest in the programs which indeed do a lot to expand mobility in cities.

Los Angeles is the glaring outlier, the only one of the ten largest American cities with no system. Though the City of Los Angeles planned a system in 2013, that proposal fell apart after difficulties with permitting got in the way. In the meantime, other cities in L.A. County—including Santa Monica and Long Beach—have implemented new dock-less networks.

Now L.A. is moving ahead with a countywide system that could eventually include 4,000 bikes distributed across the region, creating a network similar in size to systems in Chicago, New York, or Washington. The initial phase will provide 1,100 B-Cycle bikes at 65 stations downtown beginning early next year. Future phases could extend into other parts of the county and will be partly funded by local governments; communities currently identified include Beverly Hills, Culver City, Huntington Park, Pasadena, East L.A., North Hollywood, West Hollywood, Venice, and areas along the Red and Expo rail lines..."

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2...ansit-network/

[M II A II R II K]

SF BIKE SHARE EXPANDING FROM 700 TO 7,000 BIKES

Read More: http://goodnewsfornature.com/2015/08...to-7000-bikes/

After a successful 21-month pilot program, the Bay Area Bike Share (BABS) system is increasing the number of bicycles it will provide to the cycle-commuting public from 700 to 7,000. BABS will also add three new cities. Studies have shown that increasing bicycle commuting provides communities with public health, financial, traffic safety, and road capacity benefits.

According to an announcement by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, BABS, initially focused on the cities of San Francisco and San Jose, will expand not only there, but will also extend to the East Bay Area communities of Berkeley, Emeryville, and Oakland. After the expansion, BABS is expected to be the second largest bike share program in the U.S.

BABS is a public-private joint venture. Once fully implemented the 7,000-bike program will rely on revenue from member and user fees and sponsorships and receive no operating subsidies from the public sector. However capital costs for future expansion into new communities beyond the current five will be paid for with public funds. Twenty-five percent of the new bikes are to be in service before summer 2016 and the remainder are scheduled to come online before Thanksgiving 2017

.....

[Eightball]

Whoa! 700 to 7k bikes? That's baller. And an East Bay expansion? Amazing

[mrnyc]

i saw the minneapolis bike share program recently, but didn't use it (although we did rent bikes for the day at lake calhoun):

https://www.niceridemn.org/





they have these bike pump stations w/tools scattered around town too:

[tateyb]

It's cool to see a lighter weight system like Cleveland appears to have developed. Are many other cities operating without the heavy duty docking stations?

[202_Cyclist]

Public bike sharing coming to Detroit

By Eric D. Lawrence
Detroit Free Press
August 24, 2015

"Detroit will get more than $1 million to launch a public bike share program, one of 14 projects tapped to get federal funding in the region, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.

In addition to Detroit, Sterling Heights will see $650,000 for the Dodge Park Bridge over the Clinton River and Lake Orion will receive more than $263,000 for the Paint Creek Trail connection to the village's downtown.

"While these are 14 independent projects, they're part of connecting our region through a system of trails and bike paths. These are quality-of-life projects that impact us all," Kathleen Lomako, SEMCOG's executive director, said in a news release..."

http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...ring/29966255/

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by tateyb

It's cool to see a lighter weight system like Cleveland appears to have developed. Are many other cities operating without the heavy duty docking stations?

yes, i dk about lighter weight bikes, but hoboken has a great system that does not use the docks -- in fact they are in the process of updating and expanding it (envisioned w/ jersey city and weehawken included, but unfortunately both of those cities backed out of the plan):

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2...e_program.html

[tateyb]

Cool! It's funny/interesting that Zipcar is one of the founding sponsors.