SmartBikes
Streetfilms came to DC and made a short film about the new SmartBike DC program:
I think this is very promising; I signed up last week and am waiting for my card in the mail. Transportation policy is full of interesting network effects. The existing SmartBike DC system is somewhat useful, especially for me because it happens to be the case that one depot is extremely close to my office and another depot is three blocks from my house. It would be even more useful to me, of course, if there were a depot at the Waterfront-SEU Metro station right by my girlfriend’s house. And of course it would be much more useful to her if there were one by her house. And if the currently existing program gets a lot of subscribers, they’ll probably expand and create new depots — which will both make it reasonable for more people to sign up and add value to the subscriptions of existing members.
Similarly, if other cities also started SmartBikes programs and it was possible for subscribers to use SmartBikes in other places they visited (I really wished I’d had a bike when I was in Austin), that’d be even more useful. And of course that would provide a way for tourists in DC to take advantage of SmartBike DC. And if tourists could use SmartBike DC then the system would support more bikes and depots which would make it more useful for residents. And on top of all that, all the evidence (and common sense) indicates that urban cycling is safer and more pleasant in cities where more people ride bikes. In other words, something that starts off as a marginal phenomenon now can, if it manages to get off the ground, wind up feeding a substantial snowball effect.
42 Responses to “SmartBikes”
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August 25th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Maybe I’m missing something, but having a depot by your apartment/house seems like something that is actually not all that useful. You have access to your bike when you are at home. It seems like they would be most useful in areas where people work/play but have to drive/take public transit to get to and would then like to have a bike to get around the area as well as tourist areas.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
And of course it would be much more useful to her if there were one by her house.
What? No. That is not the purpose of bike-sharing. Bike sharing is useful when you travel to a metro station far from home and want to bike the remaining distance to your final destination. It is perfectly reasonable to expect that people who want to bike from their homes to a destination will have a bike at their own home.
It would be much more useful to your girlfriend if there were at the metro station near your home.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I’m trying to figure out whether I would make any use of this if it was here in Boston/Cambridge… I guess I would do it if it was convenient instead of taking the bus. So like if there was a station at Porter I could go to Inman more quickly or head over to Allston without waiting for the bus.
One problem seeming to be that you can only really go from station to station, as I don’t presume they really want you locking it up at random places. So, as you say, you need a pretty high level of penetration to make it really attractive.
The other problem is just a general thing with bikes, as opposed to some sort of Zipcar setup… you have less carrying capacity than you even do on foot, so it’s not that useful for any kind of shopping. Which is what my car-less urbanite pedestrian self is really interested in.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Matthew, don’t you own your own bike? What’s your usage scenario for the sharing service?
August 25th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
How about a link to Greater Greater Washington?
August 25th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
you have less carrying capacity than you even do on foot.
Absolutely untrue. You might have trouble with a family-size 24-pack of toilet roll, but you can fit a lot of groceries in a decent sized backpack.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Absolutely untrue. You might have trouble with a family-size 24-pack of toilet roll, but you can fit a lot of groceries in a decent sized backpack.
Yeah but when you walk, you can wear the backpack and carry stuff in your hands. You can also carry fragile stuff that would be crushed in a full backpack.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I saw people riding the distinctive “Velolibre” or whatever the Smartbike equivalent was called in Paris, all the time. There, you rented by the half-hour (or it was free for the first half-hour then started costing). They come with their own locks built-in, so you can lock it at your destination for a quick dash into the shop.
As to the carrying-capacity of a bike… if you have ready access to a grocery store, you find yourself making frequent trips bringing home a small amount of stuff, instead of big weekend expeditions ending with a trunk-full of groceries.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
This already is available in Barcelona, Spain. Seen that when been there. Though I could not use it as tourist.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
How on earth do these bikes not get jacked? Cameras on the depots?
August 25th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Well that’s what I already do on foot, with two reusable canvas bags and my messenger bag on my back. However, I do only live a quarter mile from the grocery store, so I’d probably sacrifice some ability to cart home groceries to get there more quickly and comfortably on a bike if I was further away.
My point wasn’t that you can’t go shopping on a bike, it’s just that when measured against public transportation it’s not markedly better and possibly worse.
However, if it does come with its own lock and you’re allowed to lock it up then I see the utility of getting into areas where public transportation doesn’t penetrate efficiently.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
How on earth do these bikes not get jacked? Cameras on the depots?
They are locked into the depots, and you need to charge it to your account to check the bike out. If you don’t return it, they have your credit card number so they’ll just charge the bike to your account.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I gotta say, if you think you can’t ever learn how to ride a bike, watch the other kids and see how they do it. That’s what I did, when I was, oh, like, four.
What’s more interesting to me is how much of this stuff can be linked for free with off-the-shelf software. Certainly a website showing cities with bikesharing programs and links to their websites. Invest in some hardware and you can show where every bike-for-share is available in a share-program bikestand. Put a GPS tracker in the bikes, and if you get low on bikes, go around and pick them up out of peoples backyards etc. A national coalition with one standard swipe card would be harder to do but well worth it.
This used to be very common, in a resort-type town or city you could rent a bike for fifty cents, which bought more in 1955 than it does today, but was still not a large sum of money. Make it the same balloon tire clunker you rented in the 50s and theft might not be such a problem.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I used a similar system (CityBike) in Vienna as a tourist. You can sign up for the system at every bike terminal, it took about three minutes with a credit card. You create a user ID and password, check out a bike, and if you don’t return the it to a terminal, the credit card is charged. The bike was a beater, but it worked fine. The first hour was free, and there were terminals throughout the city.
I’ve done grocery shopping on a bike, too, and it’s not that difficult. Get a rear rack and either attach a milk crate or some panniers, and it’s easy to fit a week’s worth of groceries (for a single person, at least.)
August 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Someone really needs to invent a bicycle helmet that an adult can wear without looking like a complete jackass.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Obviously these aren’t great for getting groceries/shopping, which has been pointed out. But to say you can carry more on foot than on a well equipped bike is stupid. Get your rear rack and some panniers as well as a pack on top of it. Add in a backpack/messenger bag and you can haul quite a bit, more than you can comfortably carry on foot. Get a trailer and you are getting way more than you can comfortably carry on foot. And it will all be done faster.
If they had rear racks on these bikes, people could just get their own panniers/packs.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
you have less carrying capacity than you even do on foot.
Go to Copenhagen and see how a bicycle culture uses those wheels. People move amazing amounts of stuff around. There are parcel delivery services on bikes. Coffee and sandwich vendors that shift their stands around via bike. Etc.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hey, all I’m saying is that I’d prefer electric SMART type car ride share depots than bike share depots because I would find it more useful for shopping. I’d be more likely to pay a yearly fee for something like that. However since I live in a very walkable neighborhood and find my needs met well by public transit, a bike share probably isn’t meant for me.
In thinking about it, it seems like it really should be aimed more for tourists and people who take the train in from outside the city. I’m not sure a yearly fee is the way to go here… if you bike enough to warrant paying it, shouldn’t you just buy your own bike? It seems like it should be a straight up rental, with the option for a yearly subscription. Also, I don’t know about DC, but up here they’d have to make a lot more bike lanes before it would seem safe for most people.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Folding wire panniers are the way to go. You can put your backpack in it when you’re not carrying something else. Wearing a backpack while riding makes you unbalanced and may give you back pain. When the panniers are full you strap your backpack on top with bungee cords.
As for the helmet, I’m thinking hockey player helmet.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
The lack of any anywhere near Capitol Hill or the Mall in general sort of seems to miss the boat on marketing this outside of DC, no? Put one right outside the Capitol and you’ll have all sorts of visiting figures from metropolitan locales coming home with the idea of building one in their neck of the woods. Dumb.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
It is a great idea and service but it needs to be much larger to be successful. I used the Velibs in Paris and they are everywhere. It was convenient and fast to get around the city. It has changed Paris. If people can rely on them they will use them. That means they need to be everywhere, plentiful, and in working order.
Velib is everywhere. Wikipedia
10,000 bicycles were introduced to the city with 750 automated rental stations each with 15 or more bikes/spaces. This number has since grown to 20,000 bicycles and 1,450 stations, about 1 station every 300 m throughout the city centre,
Not being able to chose which bike you take is a mistake. In Paris you inspect the bikes first looking for a problem and then chose which one you want at the terminal. An hour seems better than 3 hours too. They are not for joyrides and you can go pretty far in DC in and hour. They should be for getting from a to b.
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