Community Bicycle Rental Schemes
by fmk on Oct 7, 2009 9:13 PM EDT
33 comments
DublinBikes, Dublin’s communal bike rental scheme, launched last month and is already claiming to be a success, with more than 10,000 of the city’s citizens signing up for annual membership of the scheme.
Modeled on Paris' popular public bike rental scheme Vélib' (short for Vélo liberté), DublinBikes - like Vélib' in Paris and Vélo'v (Vélo love) in Lyon - is run by the outdoor advertising conglomerate JCDecaux, in conjunction with the city council. In return for allowing the marketing maestros to litter the city’s streets with new advertising signage the city gets a community bike rental scheme. Unsurprisingly, not everyone thinks this is a bargain worth bragging about.
Though sometimes billed as a free bike scheme, there are, of course, costs attached to using the bikes. First off, to access the scheme, you need to buy either an annual ticket (€10) or a three-day ticket (€2). The annual ticket you can apply for online or, like the three-day ticket, you can buy it from one of the 14 credit-card enabled kiosks spread around the city. Once you’ve got your ticket and picked up your bike, you get the first half-hour’s use for free. After that the pricing structure is designed to encourage you to get your bike back as soon as possible: an hour’s use will only cost you €0.50 but four hours will set you back €6.50, with another €2 being added to your bill every half-hour after that. And if you haven’t returned the bike within 24 hours then it’s reported stolen and you’ll get billed another €150. So that’s a bill of €238.50 you’ll be faced with if you fancy making off with one of the stylishly-liveried bikes.
Parisians could choose from more than 10,000 bikes located at 750 stations around the city when their scheme launched in 2007 and have seen the scheme double in size since then. London’s eccentric cycling Lord Mayor, BoJo, has promised that his version of the scheme – due to go live next year – will see Londoners having access to more than 6,000 bicycles located at 400 stations. DublinBikes though currently stretches to just 450 bikes and 40 stations – and all of those stations are within the boundary of the city’s two canals, north to south a distance of about three and a half kilometers. With barely 300m between stations in Paris and the scheme covering the whole city it's easy to see how it became so popular over there. Given the smaller scale and density of the scheme in Dublin it'll be interesting to see how the city's citizens take to it in the longterm.
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Oh, ho
Lots to say about this. DC just completed a pretty big failure of a test with DC Smartbike. Diagnosis = shitty management. They are now (in partnership with Arlington) are about to take on Montreal’s Bixi model to move forward. Here’s hoping it works.
More tomorrow.
by Sui Juris on Oct 7, 2009 9:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Will be interested in seeing what you have to say. Hopefully ‘shitty management’ will not do for the Dublin scheme – JCDecaux seem to have amassed plenty of experience with this in Paris and Lyon and they appear to have got quite a cheap deal from Dublin City Council. Perhaps too good a deal, even.
I think the Bixi model is the one being rolled out in London next year – maybe Albertina, civetta or Monty know more on that score.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 8, 2009 1:01 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
It looks fairly similar to the London one
there’s a report on the BBC website complete with video. The big problem all these schemes have is dealing with theft. My old University town started a similar scheme while I was there, but using old stolen but not reclaimed bikes and the like, all painted bright green, but they’d pretty much all been nicked within 3 days. As I understand it that’s par for the course. The distinctive design may help, but I understand that even Paris has pretty hefty “leakage” but the contract they have makes JCDecaux liable to provide replacements. Hence, I guess, their reluctance to actually pay for more of these schemes.
by Monty. on Oct 8, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Theft is what everyone’s expecting this scheme to end up with. Suprisingly though, the journos haven’t been able to make a story of it in the scheme’s first month – three did go missing but ended up all being accounted for.
From what I understand, JCDecaux admit to having made a mistake with the Vélib’ scheme, in that you could return your bike without it being locked securely in the stand mechanism. As far as I understand, the Dublin stands are supposed to have rectified this problem – you’re only able to consider it returned if you get a geen ‘locking’ light on the stand.
One story I did read – can’t remember the source but if I find the link I’ll post it – suggested that JCDecaux may be talking up the losses in the Paris scheme in an effort to reduce their own liabilities. Clearly though there was (is?) a problem in Paris – but how a big a problem I don’t know.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 9, 2009 9:39 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
“It’s in large part a PR issue,” says Luc Nadal of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. Some aspects of the Vélib contract are still in flux, and the sky-is-falling press coverage gives JCDecaux a stronger hand in those negotiations. “Their bargaining position depends on the public’s perception.”
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 9, 2009 10:15 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Something I should add. One of my reasons for posting about this was reading Stephen Clarke’s Dial M For Merde. In it one of the characters meets her future husband through Vélib’. If you’ve got experience of one of these bike rental schemes maybe you could confirm / deny their pulling power.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 8, 2009 1:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
they also just started
something like this in Nice about a month ago – Vélo Bleu. Blue bikes all over. Seems to be quite popular. Costs a euro a day. Quite easy to use and all. linky:
by yeehoo on Oct 8, 2009 3:54 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Nice has a pop about two-thirds that of Dublin. And yet, according to that link, you’re going to have a scheme twice the size of ours. You lucky, lucky …
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 8, 2009 8:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
That's ridicilous pricy..
6,50 euro for 4 hours? Than buy a normal bike for yourself. That’s 120 euro
by Frinking on Oct 8, 2009 6:18 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Geneva
usually rated in the top 5 most expensive cities in the world …… charges $0 for up to 4 hours.
Moo
by Willj on Oct 8, 2009 7:27 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
This year Dublin is only the 13th worstest city, cost-wise. Maybe next year the Economist could recalculate the whole thing based on the cost of bike rental shemes – I know they used to do a Big Mac index.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 8, 2009 8:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The reason for this
Is that the bikes are intended for short trips…not century rides. The bixi website (here in Mtl) clearly says this so as not to deceive. And I have to say, they are incredibly popular here. Well, less so now that the cooler weather is moving in. But this summer (they were just introduced in the spring) you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing someone on a bixi. And what i like to see is 2 people biking, one on a bixi, and the other on their own bike. That says to me that it has gone past the novelty phase, and is actually being adopted into peoples lives.
"It looks like talking, but it’s just words that comes out"
~ Andy Schleck
by Hons on Oct 8, 2009 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
They might be intended for short trips and not centurians, but that didn’t stop these two guys giving them a try. There’s even talk about trying a couple of them out in the Wicklow 200 next year.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 9, 2009 9:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I would suggest tourists are a major market for this though?
by civetta on Oct 8, 2009 7:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
they should be
But it depends on the implementation. Here in DC, you had to sign up for a year long membership ($40), which led to unlimited use (admittedly in 3 hour maximum increments). To do this, you had to sign up online, and wait for a card to show up in the mail. No possibility at all for point-of-sale type single use signup by tourists (which we have a couple of, in DC).
As observed above, bike-sharing isn’t really intended as a total replacement for bike ownership the way, say, car-sharing is.
by Sui Juris on Oct 8, 2009 8:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I haven't used the Paris scheme myself
but I know people who were visiting who have, which suggests “tourists” or people who happen to be there for a few days are one market for it?
by civetta on Oct 12, 2009 8:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Tourists yes. But that’s one reason I think the Dublin scheme is far too small – it covers are area of barely two by three klicks, and really only focuses ont he city centre. The bikes ought be available as far west as the Phoenix Park (a great cycling area, for tourists) and east as far as the coast (which is only a couple of klicks away), places like Joyce’s martello tower and the like.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 9, 2009 9:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
the link makes an obvious and good point. The Advertising has a value …. and JCDecaux seems to be getting cheaper advertising by supplying bikes versus paying €’s
Perhaps they could fund a bike program run by someone else by selling billboard advertising to JCDecaux.
Moo
by Willj on Oct 8, 2009 7:24 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I prersume you mean to link to the article posted by Paul Clerkin? That does pretty much sum up the argument against the scheme in its current guise.
The problem with them taking money from JCDecaux for the advertising and then spending it elsewhere on a bike rental scheme is twofold:
First and foremeost, JCDecaux appear to have a proven track record in delivering and running such schemes. Their competence isn’t in question, rather it’s the competence of the people involved witht he Council who made this agreement with them;
Secondly – and quite cynically – I personally wouldn’t trust the Council to actually spend the money on a bike rental scheme. Something else would come up and the money would be directed topward that. Hypothecation is great in theory but in the real world of local government, the instances in which it works are few and far between.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 8, 2009 8:04 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
… you mean to link to the …
… you mean the link to the …
It sounds rude without me correcting it to what it was meant to say.
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 8, 2009 8:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
;) no worries (thx)
Their competence isn’t in question, rather it’s the competence of the people involved witht he Council who made this agreement with them;
yes very good point
Moo
by Willj on Oct 8, 2009 3:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Since I'm up in the frozen North
I’ve no idea what’s planned for London, but here are the bikes from the Roman scheme in the week of their launch earlier this year:
It’s quite a small scale scheme, with varying numbers of bikes in each of 19 locations in the centro storico, a couple in the città universitaria and three more out at the beach at Ostia, but interestingly from tomorrow they are rolling it out to Municipio III, which is a more residential area just outside the city centre. It’s run by ATAC which is the city public transport authority. The cost is €5 for a card which allows you to use the bikes, then a further €0.50 per half hour & you’re allowed the bike for upto 24 hours. Very trusting, these Romans, but if it hadn’t worked thus far I guess they wouldn’t have rolled it out further. Having said that, having just looked at their website, a lot of the bikes seemed to be “in use” at 1 in the morning Roman time!
The problem I had, though, was getting hold of a card. I asked in the ATAC hut at Largo Argentina where I took the pic, but they told me I’d have to go all the way to Termini to get one, which seems a bit of a flaw from the casual tourist-user’s point of view. As it happened, I was en route to Termini to get a train up to Venice anyway, so I got a bus & that was that.
by civetta on Oct 8, 2009 7:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
deposit?
Any credit card details required to secure the original card, or is it just the five euros?
by Sui Juris on Oct 8, 2009 8:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
About a decade ago
the local council used to run a scheme from the park in Oostende which not only was free but also asked for no deposit (although they did want to copy passport details). They just gave you a bike for a few hours, as long as you got it back before they shut for the evening.
by Monty. on Oct 10, 2009 7:05 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
If I were a tourist
I’d want a bike just to go exploring a bit beyond where public transport can take you. But with so few pick-up and drop-off points, plus a meter running as you go, it looks a lot less flexible (and potentially a bit more expensive) than getting a one day travel card.
by Monty. on Oct 10, 2009 7:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The funny thing about Rome though
(& you probably know this) is that you can walk miles & miles in a very small area of the centro storico where there is very little public transport to speak of (mainly because the buses can’t get down the small streets & they can’t dig underground because of the archaelogy). So actually for getting around in that area the bike would be a good, practical idea. You see a lot more people cycling there than you used too, funnily enough, though not (for obvious reasons) on many of the major roads…
But there are other bike hire schemes in Rome, there is one for the for the archaelogical park on the Appia, for instance.
by civetta on Oct 12, 2009 8:47 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I thought that the Via Appia Antica was my little secret
whenever I’ve been in Rome on Sunday it was a nice place for a quiet walk, and you don’t tend to see a soul until you reach the churches with the catacombs. It’s not really big enough to make a proper ride, though, probably no more than five miles from one end to the other.
by Monty. on Oct 12, 2009 2:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Isn't termini
the main train and subway station as well as a bus hub in the lot outside it? Seems like most tourists would end up in termini if they arrived in roma by train or ever transferred between the two subway lines (I believe it is the only transfer point). Although I believe some of the airports are not accessible from termini and only 2 of the 3 are or something of that matter.
But yeah, more accessibility would definitely be better for the system. I know in Vienna their citybike system would sell you a card registration/membership for a euro at any station (outdoor terminal really) where you could get a bike. You didn’t even need anything except a credit card, it just stored your name or account attached to the credit card and you went from there without any sort of membership card or residency requirement or person to person interaction needed.
by Nomer on Oct 11, 2009 6:46 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yes, though if you arrive at Termini, you tend not to go back there until you leave, not if you've got any sense, anyway ;-)
(though it’s actually rather a nice station these days). (Funnily enough, Termini doesn’t appear to have a bike point so you’d have to get one/drop it off in the città universitaria, if you know where it is…) Yes, it’s the only place the metro lines cross but the metro’s not really that much use. The buses are much better, & there are several large bus hubs in town (Largo Argentina, San Silvestro etc.) which really ought to be able to sell you a card.
by civetta on Oct 12, 2009 8:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Do those bikes actually have derailleur gears?
pounding along in three ratios like a sonata
like a Ritter with pommelled scrotum atra cura on the step
Botticelli from the fork down pestling the transmission
tires bleeding voiding zeep the highway
by fmk on Oct 12, 2009 8:58 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Those in Montreal do
Three gears. And the official website says about 30 bikes with 7 gears have been released in the network.
Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill (F. Coppi)
by MathieuG on Oct 12, 2009 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I don't think
That the half hour limit for free rides is that big a deal at the moment. Looking at the map of where the stations are, they all seem to be located more or less in the an lar/city centre. You could practically walk between most of the stations in a half hour, and even with the sometimes bad traffic in Dublin and the infrequent and the risk of being killed by a Dublin bus you could easily get from one end of the system to the other by bike in a half hour.
I wish they’d expand it a bit though into more outlying/residential areas, the stations are confined to a rather restricted corridor as is. The stations are so centrally located as is that it is probably impractical for locals to use for commuting/transport unless for running errands once in the city centre, maybe during a lunch hour or something? On the whole, I’d say the system is a positive development though.
by Nomer on Oct 11, 2009 6:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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