FRIEZE NEW YORK 2013
INTERNATIONAL HOME + HOUSEWARES SHOW 2013
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2012
BEIJING DESIGN WEEK 2012
I'm still getting used to the fact that New York City, once a global leader, has fallen so far behind other cities in keeping up with the times. On a trip to Copenhagen in 1995, I marveled at that city's system of public bikesharing, and many of you live in places where that's old hat; but I'm still excited to see that New York is finally getting something similar in a couple of months.
Like many other things in New York, it won't be free. Citi Bike is something like ZipCar for bicycles, though the pricing model is a bit different: You pay a $95 annual fee and then get as many 45-minute bike rides as you can take, from station to station, throughout predetermined locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Another difference with Citi Bike is that tourists can take advantage of the program by paying for 24-hour access or 7-day access (30-minute riding intervals). Thus far the map looks pretty comprehensive for downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, though some of these may change:
"Bike share systems only work when bikes are used and re-docked so that others can use them," Citi Bike writes, explaining why overages are charged if you exceed the 45-minute limit. You can get around this on longer trips by relaying from station to station, but NYC is geographically small enough that I can't see myself having to do that often.
I'm curious as to how they'd work out the logistics of keeping each bike station balanced between having enough supply and enough empty slots to dock incoming bicycles; there's no word on how they plan to solve the former, but Citi Bike has solved the latter as follows: Should you get to your destination station and find it full, a screen at the station awards you a 15-minute credit and directs you to the nearest station with an empty slot. The stations appear close enough that this will hopefully not be a hassle.
What will be a hassle is if you're unattentive enough to have the bike stolen out from under you; that will incur a $1,000 fine. Ouch.
Citi Bike launches this July with 10,000 bikes in 600 locations. (And as the name implies, yep, it's sponsored by the bank.)
Comments
We have this system in London. To answer your question, they have electric vehicles with trailers that they use to redistribute bikes after busy periods because you find the bike stations near the main rail stations become empty as commuters come into town and cycle to their office. Seems to work well.
since the bikes look the same, I would guess that it works much like Hubway [http://www.thehubway.com/], in Boston, and the other systems around the country. When stations get too unbalanced they have employees move bikes to stations that have fewer from the ones that are overloaded.
All hail BIXI! It's great to see Montreal innovation in around the world!
Since this is a design blog, I guess it's worth mentioning the whole system has been designed in Quebec and first implemented in Montreal (Know here as Bixi). It's exported everywhere.
To answer your concern about bike redistribution... We have the bikes loaded on special pick-up trucks when a station is full. They are then delivered to empty stations around the city.
I'm curious as to what role Citi is playing in this. Do they own this operation? Are they making money from it or is it a loss-leader to get their stupid logo on more stuff around New York? Is there a public interest, meaning you can go to citibikes.gov.nyc or whatever and sign up?
Well, if we have to explain the genealogy:
- This is a new license of Montreal's BIXI system
- BIXI is an improvement upon other computerized bike PSSes around the world, particularly Paris' Velib
- Velib was built upon the pioneering groundwork of Velo a la Carte in Rennes, France, credited as being the first computerized bike PSS. Then came Lyon's Velo'v which was the biggest until Velib came along.
PS: Your CMS won't let me post French characters like e acute.
I can only imagine the fees that will be popping up seeing that citi bank is involved. Such fees as, " One time tyre puncture resistance fee", "#3 bike in #7 slot" "Seat wear user fee" "Destination arrival locking fee", "More than 3 times late in one week fee" "Chain greasing requirement fee" "Unauthorized docking station return fee" And once the bank starts using the info they have on you, and using a facial scanner, "Blue eyed user fee" " Low credit score user fee" " missed payment user fee" "You live in Jersy fee"
I also question the longivity of the bikes and stations in NY.
We have had Bcycle here in Denver for 2 years and it has been an amazing success! Thus far Bcycle has expanded to 10 other cities and will only continue to grow. Checkout http://bcycle.com/# for more information. Glad to see NYC has finally has a bike sharing program. Too bad it's sponsored by Citi Bank....
I was about to say that we had such system in Europe before the Montreal's BIXI one, but someone already mentionned it. ----
@ rabidchi, then I'm currious to know, how is it improved from the other formulas such as Paris' ?
----
Besides, to come back on the "rebalancing" question, I think they added a system, in Paris, where some stations are considered "high rated" or something: when you put back a bike to such stations during rush hours, for instance, you earn extra credits (especially if you bring back a bike to a station located near a lot of office buildings). And indeed, they have workers and trucks that move the bikes around to ensure a fair spread over the city. ----
Another issue that justifies quite important fees is the maintenance: in Paris, I know that a lot of bikes where vandalized, even while just staying at their stations. ----
It is actually a great system, I just hope that it will force NYC drivers to be a little more aware of bikers in the way they drive around the city.
Love the comments so far.
Rabidchi: I hate how my e acutes always turn into something else too!
Bike systems: I prefer how these systems are implemented in other cities over Montreals. In Montreal, the stations take up street parking, which is already difficult to find. Because they are in the road, they need to be removed every winter and put back in spring. Lastly, as stated, the bikes tend to be taken from all over the place to the downtown in morning and then returned in the evening (as a form of commuting). This leads to the problem of just hiring a few people to stand around and collect bikes in downtown, rather than use the fancy bike stands. I would list that as a fail.
On the social side, the bikes have promoted very bad behaviours. Typical riders don't wear helmets and more often than other bikers, ride on the sidewalk. I really wish the city had invested in a few bike garages in downtown where bikes would be securely stored during the day than get into this really complicated half-a**ed solution.