Bike-sharing services roll into the U.S.

Street-furniture companies are poised to excel in bike-share programs, says Mark Madden, director of business development at Cemusa. The company now runs a 350-bike program with 20 stations in Pamplona, Spain; will be launching another in Rome in mid-May with 250 bikes and 22 stations; and expects to be working in about 30 cities within a year.

Clear Channel launched its first bike-share program in Rennes, France, in 1998 and has since opened operations in Scandinavia and Spain. The program proved so popular in Barcelona that Clear Channel plans to quadruple the size of the service, expanding the system from 100 stations and 1,500 bicycles to 400 stations and 6,000 bicycles.

Unlike the bike-rental services offered by many cities, bike shares encourage short-term transit uses. The vast majority of users spend less than 30 minutes in the seat.

Fees are generally paid through an annual membership or a sliding scale based on the amount of time the bike is being used, or a combination of the two. A $40 annual subscription gives SmartBike DC users self-serve access to a bike at any station. In Paris, Vélib’ users purchase an annual subscription for 29 euros or a short-term subscription at 1 euro for a single day or 5 euros for a week. The first 30 minutes are free with either Vélib’ plan, but increase thereafter — 1 euro for the first additional half hour, 2 euros for the second additional half hour and 4 euros for each subsequent half hour. If a bike is not returned to a station within a set amount of time — usually 24 or 48 hours — a replacement fee is charged to the user’s account.

Advertising-supported bike-share programs are the prevailing model in Europe and are, thus far, the preferred model in the U.S., although there haven’t been many RFPs issued. But some bike-share experts caution cities to remember that everything comes at a cost. Ad space has a value and exchanging that space for a bike-share program can lower a city’s income, even if it doesn’t have to shoulder the cost of a bike-share program.

DeMaio, however, remains optimistic that cities can work with companies to make bike-share programs profitable for both parties. “Public transport is usually fuel intensive and needs drivers and there’s a lot of infrastructure required. But with bicycling, you already have the bike facilities, the bikes themselves are inexpensive, the driver is the customer, and there is no fuel, other than the breakfast of the customer,” he says.

More information

• Cemusa
• Clear Channel Outdoor
• JCDecaux North America
• Nextbike
• MetroBike LLC
• SmartBike DC
• Vélib’
• Bicing

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