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Thursday, May 24, 2012
Bike share program stumbles and evolves
by Brandon Darnell, published on July 18, 2011 at 5:18 PM
Storyline: Local Business
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Sacramento’s Ride Your Own Way bike share program suffered a setback when three bicycles were stolen earlier this month, but organizers said they are going forward with an updated system, and new bicycles will soon be ordered.
“Someone stole a credit card and used that to check out the bikes,” said Midtown Business Association Executive Director Rob Kerth. “We’ve made some changes to how people have to validate the credit card, so we’ll be able to tell if it’s the right person.”
The program, which launched June 11, allows bicycles to be rented from one of two kiosks in Midtown – one at the Priority Parking lot at 16th and I streets and one at the Priority Parking lot at 27th and J streets. Renting a bicycle is free for the first 30 minutes, and a $2 per half hour charge is applied after that, and bicycles must be returned to their original spots once the riders are done with them.
“It’s great for people who want to use bikes to go shopping or go to lunch or things like that,” said Adrian Moore, owner of Ikon Cycles and purchaser of the original 12 Bianchi Milano eight-speed bicycles.
Click here to read a previous in-depth story on the bicycle sharing program.
The program was set up as a six-month pilot to determine the feasibility of doing it on a larger scale, similar to programs in Montreal, Paris and Washington, D.C.
“My first impression of it is that it seems to be working pretty well,” Kerth said. “It’s maybe (getting) a little less (use) than what I’d thought, but we’ve yet to hit our stride.”
Kerth said there have been 43 bicycle rentals, and several of those have been from return users. Saturdays are the most popular days for the rentals, but he said people use them every day.
The average checkout time is about two hours, and Kerth said feedback has been positive, with people saying the system is easy to use and affordable.
“We’re looking forward to when we start having more kiosks, assuming it goes well and people like it,” Kerth said.
Moore said he is happy with the amount of usage and said there would have been more rentals had the service not been shut down for a couple of weeks following the theft. The shutdown was so better theft countermeasures could be put in place.
One of the countermeasures is to only allow two bicycles to be checked out on one credit card at a time.
Currently, the bicycles at the J Street location are back and available for checkout, while the I Street station’s bicycles are still in storage until the three stolen ones can be replaced.
“We’re just waiting on the check from the insurance company,” Moore said.
Moore added that he thinks the theft was not a trend, but more of an isolated incident.
“We went three weeks without a single theft, and we had no vandalizing of the bikes or parts stolen off them,” he said. “It’s just one (person) that sort of ruined it.”
If theft continues to be a problem as it has been with personal bicycles in Midtown, Moore said there are other options to counter the threat.
One option is to set up a subscription-based service, which would cause lag time from when people initially sign up to when they can check out a bicycle for the first time.
Another option, he said, is to partner with the city and install kiosks in parking garages where a guard is on-site 24 hours per day.
“They already have someone paid to be there, and they will probably be willing to give up one parking spot for the bikes,” Moore said. “That’s a route that would be easy to do and would prevent vandalism and theft.”
And that’s why Ride Your Own Way is still in its pilot phase, Moore said.
“That’s the whole point in doing this,” he said. “We might lose a little bit, but we learn tons.”
Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.
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Really this exemplifies the perfect way to incubate new businesses and city services. Bikes were purchased by a private business (kudos to Ikon Cycles) and the service funded by the Midtown Business Association. It was done quick, efficiently, and if for whatever reason it just doesn't work in Sacramento, you can be sure the program will end just as efficiently. The biggest contribuition from the City of Sacramento here is that they stayed out of the way, as it should be.
Citizens of Sacramento should be proud to have businesses and business associatiions willing to try something like this.
Any chance Mr. Moore and Mr. Kerth might want to take over privatization of our mismanaged city paramedic services next?
Bike theft in midtown is rampant and our habits of securing our steeds our poor in general. Recommend always locking up well and out in the open. Report your theft emediately so the police can do their job getting recovered bikes back to their owners.
You can return a bike to any station... it's not designed to be used for touring, but rather to go someplace, return the bike to the system (so somebody else can use it), and the get another bike when you need to return.
Each bike is being used about 10 times per day, and that economy of use is what allows it to be cost effective, and people use it because it cheap, everywhere, and easy to use.
It's not expected to be self supporting, because it actually improves everyones quality of life -- better health through exercise (thus happier people and cheaper public health bills), more life at the street level, fewer cars and thus better air quality, less noise, and more parking for those that want to drive. It's subsidized by car parking fees. Note that it's actually run by an American company, Clear Channel.
Only the government can make things like this work -- the government is us in collective action, and its goals can be much richer then just a profit motive. The rest of the world understands that, but sadly we mostly seem not to (except when it comes to the military).
Kudos and please keep posting...