Velo City 2024 took place in Ghent, Belgium, from the 18th to the 21st of June. For those who are not familiar with it, it is renowned as the reference conference promoting cycling globally. Indeed, the diversity of backgrounds and interests in the audience is stimulating: it showcases the numerous cycling-related initiatives being held on …
Continue reading "Bike-sharing At Velo City 2024"
Shared micromobility news from the past couple of years has highlighted two important pathways to establish it as a vital urban mobility option in any city across the globe. The advent of free-floating in 2018 still impacts the perception of citizens and public authorities: persistent issues with parking management remain the primary concern when shared …
Continue reading "🔒+⚡- Universal charge & lock stations, the missing brick of shared micromobility?"
In 2023, the scooter-sharing industry was anticipated to experience consolidation, and after some time, two significant announcements finally came in December from the US. On the 15th, Superpedestrian declared the closure of its US operations and its intention to sell its EU businesses. This news was surprising given that the company had raised $125 million …
Continue reading "🎉New year comes with a new scooter landscape"
Since its inception, the shared mobility community has branded itself the green transportation solution. The electrification of entire fleets has only strengthened this claim. As a movement, we have always been a few steps ahead: only recently did the European Parliament vote in favour of a complete ban of ICE by 2035. But we haven’t figured it all …
Continue reading "How to minimise the impact of batteries in micromobility"
New article written in collaboration with fluctuo. This week we are exploring the unique Turkish shared mobility market. Constantinople embodied the dreams of the ancient Ottoman civilisation, and was the gateway to Europe. Today, however, Istanbul – and Turkey in general – remains a distant and largely unexplored destination for most stakeholders in the shared …
Continue reading "Turkey: An emerging market bursting with opportunity for shared mobility"
New article of the fluctuo‘s series: the potential of computer vision in the shared electric mobility industry. Since the early days of scooter-sharing, back in 2018, the industry has significantly matured to cater to the needs of cities worldwide. Gone are the days of launching in new territories with scooters fit for the consumer market: …
Continue reading "👀 Eyes for scooters"
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a massive boom in electric bikes (e-bikes). Throughout Europe or in the US, e-bike sales exploded to unprecedented levels. The shift has been massively supported by local authorities that were happy to find a straightforward commuting alternative for their citizens that respects social distancing. Through the large-scale adoption of financing schemes, or the …
Continue reading "The bike is back!"
A unique chance for energy actors to catch a piece of this fast-growing 500 billion USD market. This article has been produces in partnership with ElectricFeel, the Venture Builder for Shared Mobility Services. It has initially been published on their blog. The Energy and Transportation industries are closely interconnected, and both are therefore facing the …
Continue reading "How energy suppliers could benefit from shared electric mobility in 2022"
New article of the fluctuo‘s series: the challenges and evolution of battery charging in the shared electric mobility industry. As in nature, the small evolve the fastest. Micromobility vehicles are no exception and have improved at a fast pace since the boom of shared micromobility services in 2018. And we are not only talking about …
Continue reading "How to feed a hungry scooter"
Many shared mobility operators launch with off-the-shelf solutions only to start internally designing their own vehicles, IOT devices or fleet management software down the track. But it’s rarer to see B2B suppliers becoming operators. Whether they are hardware, IoT or software providers, a handful of them have decided to take the plunge and start shared …
Continue reading "Smooth operators: When suppliers launch their own mobility services"
Shared scooters arrived in Marseille (FR) on January 2019, when Lime launched the first service with 150 vehicles. As the second most populated city in France with 868,000 inhabitants, Marseille is a major focus for (almost) all the operators with its welcoming weather… and despite not being the most cycling-friendly city (lack of infrastructure, traffic, …
Continue reading "Scooter jam on La Cannebière, Marseille"
People who are not experts in blockchain (I’m included) would have imagined finding the first application of the technology within the shared micromobility industry in the payment process, where it is mostly used so far. It came back in the news for a different purpose when Helium, a US company developing a blockchain-based hotspots solution, …
Continue reading "Will blockchain be a game-changer for shared vehicles geolocation?"
I have already written about the rapid growth of bikes-as-a-service, or bike subscription services. The opportunity to have a bike available without bothering with its maintenance is appealing to many new (or not) riders who switched from public transports during the pandemic. Last week, the European leader Swapfiets announced a kind of mise en abyme: …
Continue reading "Parts-as-a-service"
The electric moped industry in Paris is holding its breath. Deputy Mayor for Transport David Belliard confirmed on June 15th that riders of internal combustion engine (ICE) motorbikes and mopeds will have to pay for parking within the city limits. With much of Paris’ 500,000 privately-owned mopeds and motorbikes affected by the change, could this decision trigger …
Continue reading "Paris, start your e-engines!"
In this new article of the fluctuo series, we explore the market of shared mopeds in the Netherlands. An insightful dive away from “my” micromobility world that also provides lessons for the future of shared micromobility in the country. The Netherlands is very unique when it comes to transport culture; in Amsterdam for example, cycling represents …
Continue reading "Moped-sharing: the Dutch connection"
London surfed the different bike-share waves when it hit Europe. The Santander Cycles public bike-share service was launched in 2010, not long after the successful experiences of Vélo’v (Lyon/FRA) or Vélib’ (Paris/FRA). The free-floating operators were also keen on operating in the British capital from 2018, but it ended with a long list of failure: …
Continue reading "💥 London’s shared micromobility boom!"
The recent history of shared micromobility took us from dock-based to dockless solutions. The latest option allowed a wider and faster adoption of those services across the world, not needing important investment and infrastructure work to set up stations. But as operators are now heavily working on optimising their unit economics, automatisation is a must. …
Continue reading "Wireless charging, the next step towards sustainable shared micromobility?"
2020, the pandemic year, saw an impressive worldwide boom in the use of bicycles, and cargo bikes are no exception. In Germany, 103,200 cargo bikes have been sold in 2020 (124 vehicles per 100,000 inh.). It is a 35% increase compared to 2019, with 3 out of 4 being electrically assisted. In France, sales of …
Continue reading "💪🚲 – The strength of shared cargo-bikes"
Don’t be taken for a ride with images of snowy landscapes and horse-drawn carriages, the Baltics and Poland are welcoming markets for shared mobility services. Those countries have turned to innovative car alternative solutions early on. They also have given birth to some of the most dynamic shared mobility companies in Europe. Estonia is home …
Continue reading "Heading East! Identifying market opportunities in Eastern European countries"
On March 31st, Zoov released a largely teased video titled “Fast Forward”. Many shared micromobility industry leaders were waiting for the big announcement : Smoove and Zoov are joining forces (merging) to create a European sustainable mobility champion. Smoove is a well-established and renowned leader of the bike-share industry since 2008, providing dock-based solutions to 23 …
Continue reading "Smoove x Zoov, behind the announcement"
The 2020’s pandemic has been an impressive catalyst to bike adoption all around the world, and even more with e-bikes. Sales of privately owned e-bikes have skyrocketed in most countries, with the notable examples of Germany (+43%), Switzerland (+28.5%), the Netherlands (+30%)… and the USA (+145%)!! If most authorities were already aware of the potential …
Continue reading "The massive electrification of public bike-share"
In France, following the National Mobility Convention, the Loi d’Orientation des Mobilités (or LOM, Mobility Orientation Law) has been under discussion from November 2018 until its publication in December 2019. It was aimed to answer four main problems: the lack of mobility solutions in many territories the climatic and environmental emergency, a call to change …
Continue reading "LOM – An analysis of the recommendations for free-floating services in France."
During the session “Pathway to Profitability: Moving Toward a Sustainable Shared Micromobility Model” at MM World conference, arisen the topic of the integration of shared micromobility services as public transport options. We discussed it with different participants, including Alex Nesic, who wrote this piece one year ago. To go further, you can also read this …
Continue reading "The Case for E-Scooters as Public Transit"
Shared mobility services are unquestionably considered a unique urban mobility option in major European cities. In most of these cities, inhabitants can choose from a large panel of shared vehicles (scooters, bikes & cargo bikes, mopeds, and cars), making it a perfect complement to public transports. But shared mobility services should not remain a privilege …
Continue reading "Micromobility: size doesn’t matter"
This article, written in collaboration with Dott, has been published in the Thinking Cities magazine from the Polis 2020 Conference. You can find the full online magazine here. Current shared micromobility services were born from the Chinese bike-share wave that landed in Western countries in 2017. Ofo and Mobike scaled up the free-floating model, disrupting …
Safety improvement is one major focus for all the shared micromobility stakeholders. As local authorities are willing to ensure riders’ safety, operators are investing and looking for innovative features to check the “safety” box and win more new markets. Improving helmet usage is one key development for shared e-scooter operators who are trying to find …
Continue reading "Shared helmets"
I am collaborating with fluctuo for a set of articles to analyze and explain mobility phenomenons. Episode #6: trying to explain some share mobility failures. For once, we will go beyond MICROmobility. There is a pressing need to tackle issues like congestion, air, and noise pollution, and smarter use of public space in all the major cities …
Continue reading "Reality check"
The urban mobility usage needs are infinite, and shared mobility operators have, therefore, to try to answer most of it by adapting their offer. Widening the range of vehicles is one way to do so, but it comes with multiples hurdles, and battery charging management is a major one. In order to optimize the service …
Continue reading "Multimodal services and battery charging management"
Shared mobility and food delivery services have developed at high speed in the last decade. In a metropolis where a bike-share service is efficient and affordable, it represents an interesting transportation option for these insecure workers. The massive addition of e-bikes to the fleets have strengthened the trend, allowing better productivity for the workers. Issues… …
Continue reading "🚲 share + 🍲 delivery = 💖"
Are we currently witnessing a business model switch for shared micromobility services ? The dynamic might confirm it, as media are focusing more and more on the emergence of subscription models. Whatever the vehicle – e-scooter, e-bike, bike – or the continent – North America or Europe – these services seem to ride a wave …
Continue reading "Subscription models, the future of shared micromobility?"
The DC Council is working on an update of the bill setting the rules of e-scooter usage in the US capital. Aside from requirements for territorial equity or scooter rules signage, the Council is willing to introduce a “lock-to” requirement to solve the bad parking behavior issue. Lock-to history Lock-to mechanisms landed in our streets …
Continue reading "Lock-to or not"
I am glad to collaborate with fluctuo for a set of articles to analyze and explain mobility phenomenons. Episode #5: the emergence of shared e-scooters in the UK. By the end of the Covid-19 lockdown in Europe, shared e-scooters companies were staring at one of the latest untapped markets of the continent: the United-Kingdom. Becoming aware of …
Continue reading "Ticket To Ride… A Scooter"
Shared Micromobility gets back on the road bike lanes! I hope you all had a good and restful summer. If you have been on holidays, the industry did not pause during the summer, modifying the landscape and dynamics. Here is my analysis of the main news of the past two months… Micromobility charts Dott and …
Continue reading "Summer 2020. The evolution of the Shared Micromobility landscape"
Zoov, the French bike-share start-up that you discovered in this blog a couple of months ago, just unveiled the first version of its charging station, a couple of new features on its e-bike, and pivoting its business model. A dense event that took place in Vanves, south of Paris, on July 1st, and that worth …
Continue reading "Zoov, next generation"
Some recent acquisition news in the shared micromobility space underlined the current acceleration of the vertical integration among product and service providers (Micromobility Industries recently organised a webinar on this very topic). Building the best vehicle or optimising the operation processes seem not to be enough… let’s try to explain it. Controlling the whole solution …
Continue reading "Vertical integration in micromobility"
MDS is the trend when you talk about data feed standards in shared mobility. But the historical GBFS feed, launched in 2015 by the NABSA, is another important part of the services data management. I took part in the Shared Mobility Data Workshop organised by MobilityData in Paris on December 2019, which goal was to …
Continue reading "The evolution of GBFS"
Africa is quite left behind when it comes to shared micromobility development. The local urban and economical context is making things complex for local entrepreneurs or renowned foreign operators who would like to settle in one of the numerous African mega-cities. As the population is craving for solutions against congestion, some projects have emerged, but …
Continue reading "Shared Micromobility in Africa"
As explained in a previous post, the Barcelona city council adopted a controversial strategy to manage the shared micromobility services on its territory. As most of the cities are working on tenders to select up to 3 operators for each mode, the Catalan capital chose an opposite path: it first selected 21 e-moped sharing companies …
Continue reading "Licenses have been awarded in Barcelona"
The Uber/Lime deal is THE major shared micromobility related news that appeared during the COVID-19 crisis. Under the US$170M investment in Lime, Uber also transferred its money-losing micromobility branch Jump to its former competitor. The transfer has massive impacts on the whole Jump structure, would it be for the HR or assets management. Impacts that …
Continue reading "The dark side of the Uber/Lime deal"
I am glad to collaborate with fluctuo for a set of articles to analyse and explain mobility phenomenons. Episode #4: how to build resilient services in a post-pandemic world. Like most every other sector of the economy, shared micromobility must reinvent itself somewhat to adapt to the coming challenges resulting from COVID-19. Operators, software developers, vehicle manufacturers, …
Continue reading "Shared Micromobility, Rebooted"
The question was raised by a statement of Bertrand Fleurose, CEO of the French e-moped operator City Scoot, one of the few shared micromobility services still available in Paris after the COVID19 related lockdown : We cannot stop our service in Paris, Milan or Rome. If we do so, all our batteries will be damaged …
Continue reading "Vehicles hibernation and batteries"
Updated April 17th For (some) of us, locked down in any country around the globe because of the COVID-19 pandemic, short-time working or simply home-office means that we have a little more free time (if you don’t have children, sorry). For shared mobility and micromobility nerds, it is an opportunity to get, analyse and store …
A few shared micromobility operators chose to maintain a limited-service during the COVID-19 crisis: when public transport in major cities is not the safest mean of transportation, other shared transport options are an absolute necessity to allow healthcare/grocery store/delivery… workers to maintain vital services. Dott is still operating its e-scooter fleets in all the cities …
Continue reading "Operating during the COVID-19 lockdown: Dott in France"
When around 2.6 billion people are required to #StayAtHome around the globe to slow down the COVID-19 propagation, mobility turns into non-mobility. In front of this unprecedented pandemic, shared micromobility operators have to adapt to local regulation and needs, in order to provide the safest and most useful service… or simply to survive the financial …
Continue reading "COVID-19: how shared micromobility operators are reacting?"
I am glad to collaborate with fluctuo for a set of articles to analyse and explain mobility phenomenons highlighted by their products. Episode #3: the situation of shared micromobility services in Barcelona. The dense, touristic and sunny capital of Catalonia has a huge potential for shared mobility. In 2007, it launched Bicing, one of the most successful …
Continue reading "Shared mobility services: “Battle Royale” in Barcelona"
I already wrote about the importance of battery management in the past and made it a key point for the development of shared micromobility services in 2020. Today, Jump is going a step further to explore the possibilities: during the Cosmo Safety Tour in Paris, it unveiled its latest e-scooter model with the same swappable …
Continue reading "Jump: the next battery-swap technology?"
I am glad to collaborate with fluctuo for a set of articles to analyse and explain mobility phenomenons highlighted by their products. Episode #2: Mobike story in Europe. Mobike and ofo, the Chinese dockless bike-sharing pioneers, became a global phenomenon in 2017 when tens of thousands of red & yellow bikes were deployed in the streets of …
Continue reading "The rise, fall and resurrection of Mobike in Europe"
The development of shared e-scooter services has grown exponentially since the launch of the first-of-its-kind in Santa Monica back in November 2017. In Europe, a few countries representing major markets for operators remain untouched due to local laws forbidding to ride e-scooters on public land. If Ireland or the Netherlands could host important projects, the …
Continue reading "E-scooter sharing in the UK: operators are warming up"
I am happy to collaborate with fluctuo for a set of articles to analyse and explain mobility phenomenons highlighted by their products. Episode #1: the lessons from Paris’ transport strike. In December 2019 started one of the largest social movements in France (at least for this decade). Fighting to maintain their specific pension rights, a …
Continue reading "Paris’ transport strike: Potential and limits of shared micromobility services"
Diving into the bottomless pit of Google, looking for information about shared cargo-bikes, I found this: Wow. It is actually a student project by Jan Libera, a former London Royal College of Art student, who won the Transportation Award at the Core77 Design Awards in 2017. Jan chose to develop a shared bike trailer because …
Continue reading "A trailer for London bike-share program?"
Horace Dediu – micromobility expert, founder of Bond and Micromobility Industries – Based in the US Shared micromobility will undergo a few changes this year: Consolidation among some of the providers with acquisitions of smaller players such as that of Scoot taking place. Focus on discovery. As Google maps is currently surfacing Lime, expect deals …
Continue reading "2020 forecast from shared micromobility experts"
Having already bet on Paris’ e-scooter sharing RFP winners in my last article, I am ready to take more risks: today I will develop two ideas on how I see the near future of shared micromobility. This is a good teaser, as I am gathering experts opinions on this very subject for next week publication. …
Continue reading "My 2020 shared micromobility forecast"
Since the emergence of shared mobility services, Paris has been one of the major open labs in Europe for shared micromobility services. The major Asian dockless bike-share operators launched massive fleets in late 2017– Gobee, oBike and ofo left, only Mobike remains in the French capital – before the waves of shared e-scooters hit the …
Continue reading "Analysis of Paris’ e-scooter RFP"
Gender equity is a major goal to be achieved in every field of society, including mobility. It is now widely accepted that mobility (and therefore micromobility) is not gender-neutral and that authorities and companies choices have an impact on the travel patterns of women. The numbers Either for bicycles or e-scooters, the majority of users …
Continue reading "The gender gap in shared micromobility"
This article written by Jeffrey Lee was first published on IoT for All, on December 6th. I publish it with the kind authorisation of Jeffrey. Municipalities are taking back their streets and sidewalks with new rules that require companies to meet city compliance ordinances and data sharing standards. These new governmental regulations have forced many micromobility companies …
Continue reading "How IoT Tech Can Help Save the Fledgling Scooter Sharing Industry"
Since 2018, e-scooters have put the light on shared micromobility solutions, but also convinced many commuters to switch to owned light electric vehicles (LEVs). The feedback loop is being completed as the wider and wider range of LEVs now inspire operators to launch news services and vehicles, or simply improve their existing ones. What are …
Continue reading "Micromobility is diversity"
As I am often writing, I see the future of bike-share as a hybrid between dock-based and dockless solutions and including e-bikes, to allow the coverage of wider territories with different usage patterns. Such solutions remain rare and are still handicapped by the stations’ costs and implementation constraints. With its CEO and founder Arnaud Le …
Continue reading "Zoov, a disruptive bike-share solution"
While reading the news of the footpath ban for e-scooters in Singapore, micromobility specialists saw it as a bad sign: for years, the city-state has been at the cutting edge of the integration of shared mobility services, and all its decisions are therefore scrutinized by the rest of the world. The recent news of a …
Continue reading "Is e-scooter sharing at stake in Asia ?"
I read through this article from Daniel Freund on how algorithms can improve bike-share operations, and what strucked me was the power of the Bike Angel program : 30% of NYC CitiBike balancing is done by the users ! It really shows the power of gamification to have users balancing the fleets. In NYC, Boston, …
Continue reading "The power of Bike Angels"
On October 16th and 17th took place in Paris the now well-established urban mobility show: Autonomy & The Urban Mobility Summit. Having chosen to focus on professionals only, the event managed to gather more than 8000 attendees from private companies and public authorities. While the show encompasses all the areas of urban mobility, from electric …
Continue reading "A takeaway from Autonomy summit 2019"
Micromobility has become a political topic in Métropole du Grand Paris. Controversy around infrastructure choices, or the wave of e-scooter fleets, have fed media and politicans. But everybody agree on e-bikes : whether you are in transit, living or visiting Paris, you now have an e-bike rental solution ! Just choose which one… Grant for …
Continue reading "Paris’ bet on e-bikes"
Minneapolis is a really dynamic city in terms of mobility. Although the harsh winter is not in favor of light mobility, it is where one of the first US public bike-share system launched in 2010. Since then, the city has been flexible to follow and test the technological changes in the micromobility sector. Station-based bike-share …
Continue reading "Minneapolis micromobility experiments"
Going forward, step by step. In order to improve unit economics, operators of free-floating mobility services are working hard to improve their product: development of sturdier vehicles to improve lifespan and resistance to vandalism, and adoption of a new paradigm toward battery charging – as we are more and more talking about electric vehicles. Charging …
Continue reading "The battery management problematic"
Of course, you know about the big players in the shared micromobility sector. Bird, Lime, Jump, Mobike, Circ, Voi… are present almost everywhere in their home markets. But let’s not forget about local players, who are also playing a big role in this fast-changing industry. By its development choices and unique business model, the French-British …
Continue reading "Discover Pony, innovative vehicle for shared mobility !"
According to the Godwin law of mobility, ” As a mobility discussion grows longer, the probability of broaching the subject of Autonomy approaches 1″ 😉 . With multiple recent announcements in the micromobility sector, it is getting an even bigger place in the discussions around shared services. 2019, an autonomous year My first real meeting …
Continue reading "Autonomy in shared micromobility"
This article was initially published on Pandaily. We are publishing it with the agreement of the author Grigor Grigorian. Thanks, Grigor! That China’s burgeoning tech industry harks back to America’s dot-com maelstrom of the 2000s is a point that is hard to disregard. Companies emerge and vanish in a flash, all of them eyeing sweet …
Continue reading "Why Are China’s Internet Giants Reviving Bike-sharing?"
As one might imagine, the usage of shared bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters really depend on the place it is available in. Thanks to my friends of fluctuo and their City Dive tool, let’s dive into some European cities… This analysis is based on data from July 22nd to August 20th, a holiday period for all …
Continue reading "Local specificities in shared micromobility usage"
Before my summer break, I give you a recap of some interesting professional shows related to micromobility for the end of 2019. To free your mind, it’s time to book and fill your agenda! Wocomoco There’s a lot happening in the collaborative mobility market. High time for a congress that takes up this trend and …
Continue reading "Update your agenda with micromobility events!"
The introduction of the MDS by the LA DOT in april 2019 started a war between the Army of Mobility Defenders and the Army for Data Privacy. Why is it all about? First… … what is MDS? Let’s start with a short explanation of what MDS is. From the GitHub page: The Mobility Data Specification …
Continue reading "Micromobility, the forum for mobility data privacy"
Japan has historically been an isolated island: after the first foreigners landed on the island in 1543, real exchanges only were established during the XIXth century. It remains a very conservative and unique culture, which is also true for mobility. Let’s have a look at the situation regarding shared micromobility services there. Bikeshare Softbank is …
Continue reading "Discover Japan’s shared micromobility"
Two of the main drawbacks of dockless shared e-scooters are public space use, and the operators business model non-profitability. An answer to both is the introduction of docks and the evolution of the technical solution toward a mix of dockless and dock-based. While free-floating might be a sustainable solution for very dense areas, docks are …
Continue reading "Why docks are part of the future of micromobility"
The French mobility engineering consultancy 6-t released last week the first study on shared e-scooter use in France. Even if 13 operators are already present here (12 in Paris only), the impact of these fast growing services are still to be fully understood. It is important to note that the study is based on Lime …
Continue reading "Who are you, e-scooter rider ?"
In shared mobility solutions, you know what bicycles look like. What e-bicycles look like. And you know very much how e-scooters look like. Well, the range is not limited to this and is extending with simpler and sturdier vehicles. Pogo sticks? No way! To joke or not to joke, that is the question… Cangoroo, a …
Continue reading "The form factor evolution"
Most articles relating the city opening to free-floating mobility services are raising fleet caps as a must, or a natural rule, in order to control the wild packs of scooter and bicycles. What are the consequences? Cities are most of the time providing licenses to operate with a regular fleet cap. The most recent examples …
Continue reading "About fleet caps."
Taking another path from Bird toward profitability, VOI, the Swedish e-scooter operator, organised a press conference to communicate on its strategical choices for the coming year. Those who came have not been disappointed. Expansion plans VOI will stay focused on Europe. Already operating in 9 countries and 18 cities, is planning to launch in 4 …
Continue reading "How VOI wants to conquer Europe"
In India, Uber is competing with the locals Ola and Zipcar, and is still a small player (operating in around 12 cities vs +100 for Ola). A way for the company to win market share is, as in other regions in the world (mainly with its acquisition of Jump Bikes in 2018), to offer micromobility …
Continue reading "Uber partners with Yulu to develop e-sit-scooters and bicycle services in India"
The last couple of weeks have been crucial for the Santa Monica based company Bird, one of the leaders of the booming e-scooter sharing industry. For months specialists are pointing at the loss-making business model Bird and its competitors have adopted. And Bird is the first to learn from it, totally mutating its own model. …
Continue reading "Bird’s business model switch"
Since the early development of dockless mobility solutions, staring in 2016 with bikes in China, the question of data usage has been central. As the ridership of these vehicles in exploding, as well as the number of cities were it is available, the need for a clear regulation towards data management and sharing with the …
Continue reading "Should operators share their data with authorities?"
After ten years of operation in Paris and its surrounding suburbs, Vélib Métropole replaced Vélib’ as the city’s new, self-service bike-share system on January 1st, 2018. The system and operator transition that comes with this new system, however, has been very complicated. The switch from JCDecaux to the new service provider, Smovengo, should have been …
Continue reading "Learning lessons from Vélib’ Métropole difficulties"
It is no secret that Uber and Lyft are fighting at the door of the Wall-Street. But it is not the only battlefield. As both are putting emphasis on the development of their micromobility services, there is now no low blow for the win. The Chicago battle Chicago is the place of a major fight: on …
Continue reading "Lyft vs Uber: the bike-share battle"
By Akash Gupta, founder and CEO of Mobycy. It is the tipping point for shared mobility in India. The paradigm shift is propelled by tectonic developments in the present times, including the rise of young population demographics, India’s transition to a mobile-first economy, and the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem covering leaps and bounds to solve the …
Continue reading "Moving Together: The Rise of Shared and Electric Mobility in India"
As the national Loi d’Orientation des Mobilités (LOM), long-awaited to clarify the usage rules of E-scooters and free-floating regulations, is getting behind schedule, it is getting complicated for French cities to wait for it. On March 21st, Paris city council unveiled a new set of rules (which still have to be voted): after a first “good conduct chart” …
Continue reading "A new free-floating legislation in Paris"
Recent news are backing the theory that dockless and dock-based bike-share solutions are complementary more than rivals. Even if some cities, frightened by the failure of some Asian operators in 2018, have adopted total or partial restriction towards dockless bike-share, in places where systems are cohabiting the competition seems positive for both systems. More bikes …
Continue reading "Dock-based bike-share systems do not feel threatened by dockless ones"
Let’s go to the Geneva Motor show. Strange isn’t it? Actually, it has been the stage of interesting discoveries of new micromobility vehicles from car-makers. Two small german ones, Audi and Volkswagen, released their vision of micromobility with their own form factors. I would describe the Audi E-tron as an electric skateboard with a joystick-style …
Continue reading "Car-makers are definitely moving towards micromobility!"
Lyft/Motivate released a couple of hundred bikes in the streets of the Big Apple in August 2018. Caroline Samponaro, Head of Bike, Scooter & Pedestrian Policy at Lyft, published an article providing some interesting conclusions from this pilot. Ebikes have been used for 15 rides/ebike/day, vs 5 rides/regular bike/day! Wow, 3 times more. It confirms …
Continue reading "Citibike expands its ebike fleet to 4000!"
The past few months have flourished with news of dockless bike-share operators getting into financial troubles: from Gobee’s bankruptcy in spring 2018, to oBike’s one in summer and ofo’s coming one. Mobike, the least damaged pioneer, is also choosing to stop expansion and focus on operations profitability. Even if the ratio vehicle cost/average trip cost …
Continue reading "Why Quality of Service is central for shared-mobility operators?"
The city of Madrid announced yesterday that they are granting a permit to… 18 operators (!!!) for their e-scooter sharing program. You thought that you have too many in Brussels or Paris with 7? Here is the long list, all these companies have now 2 months to launch in the Spanish capital: Acciona, Eskay, Voi, …
Continue reading "You thought that 6 or 7 e-scooter operators was a lot. Here comes Madrid with 18!"
We would have expected these big news from historical scooter manufacturers such as Segway-Ninebot or Xiaomi, or even big players of e-scooter sharing such as Bird or Lime. But no… the first e-scooter dedicated to share-use and including a swappable battery has been unveiled by Veoride, the small (they are currently operating only in universities and …
Continue reading "Veoride introduces swappable batteries on shared e-scooters!"
This article was initially published on Urban Mobility Daily, the blog of Paris’ Autonomy show. The Micromobility Conference, a unique gathering of international micromobility actors, was held on January 31st in Richmond, California. I decided to travel from Paris to California to check it out and to better understand the trends and challenges of …
Continue reading "A takeaway from the Micromobility Conference"
Two piece of news have been published in the last couple of days. The easy conclusions being that the rise of e-scooter sharing signed the end of bike-sharing. But how true is that? First an inventory of the private transit services available in Denver, CO: ride-hailing with Uber and Lyft, bike-share with B-Cycle (docked), …
Continue reading "Is e-scooter-share cannibalizing bike-share?"
Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) launched its E-scooter pilot program in july 2018, having set a permitting framework focusing on 4 critical objectives: Reduce traffic congestion by shifting trips away from private motor vehicle use Prevent fatalities and serious injuries on Portland streets Expand access to opportunities for underserved Portlanders Reduce air pollution, including climate …
Continue reading "Portland’s E-scooter pilot program review"
After the long season 1 of “Switching dock-based PBS operators”, relating the suspenseful story of Vélib 2 in Paris, its is time for season 2 with Bicing in Barcelona! PBSC is taking over Clear Channel in the Catalan capital, after almost 12 years for the now historic service. As for Paris’ Vélib’, the challenge remains …
Continue reading "Bicing V2 is landing in Barcelona’s streets"
Every reader here already knows the main problem that cities want to address when dockless shared-mobility operators are coming in its streets. Angry drivers lost in a sea of scooters and bicycles, yes, but most of all: indiscriminate parking! The trend is clearly going towards securising and organising the parked vehicles. It has been emphasized …
Continue reading "Where is the parking spot? About indiscriminate parking."
It is in the air for months, and every piece of news is confirming that ofo is in really bad situation, and maybe close to bankrupt. You see, even the website is dead… Let’s try to figure out what led to the current situation. Global Management ofo was funded in 2014, and expanded at very high speed …
Continue reading "ofo: the Rise and (final?) Fall"
With the raise of dockless shared-mobility solutions around the globe, cities are trying to take advantage of the amount of data collected through the smartphone’s apps. Urban planners are willing to analyse those data to understand and forecast flows, plan and design new infrastructures, monitor the supply and demand, with the final goal to integrate …
Continue reading "A call for data standardization towards shared-mobility providers"
Understanding the local environment and its constraints is a must for bike-share operators to be successful. Therefore, small companies building their own product and offer have a competitive advantage, even in front of the sector giants. Oribiky, a french start-up based in Villetaneuse, 12km north of Paris city-center, is willing to use it. Oribiky …
Continue reading "Oribiky, the french solution for shared E-bikes"
Small cities can be innovative as well. Zug (Switzerland), 26000 inhabitants, has developed a unique economic environment, not only thanks to its very favorable tax policy but also thanks to its territorial strategy: Zug’s startup enterprises, fintech incubation firms, and governmental authorities all seem to have open lines of communication; regularly collaborating with the …
Continue reading "A block-chain based project launched in Zug (Switzerland)"
Let’s take two evident contemporary trends: The future of bike-share will include more and more E-bikes! The economic situation implies that bike-share schemes will get less grants or subsidies, and will therefore have to become more financially efficient. The equation seems hard to solve as E-bike fleets operation is of course more expensive …
Continue reading "A solution to improve E-bike-share operation"
Every morning, when you turn on your computer, I guess you really wonder what news you’ll get on the mobility sector. That’s how I feel. The current moves from ALL actors (E-scooter/bike/scooter/car manufacturers, shared solution providers, software and tech companies…) are changing the landscape everyday. Focusing on bike-share only, last year saw Uber buying Jump …
Continue reading "Perpetual motion in shared-mobility… towards walled gardens"
The third edition of Paris’ Autonomy show took place in La Grande Halle de La Villette, on october 18-20th 2018. The show is dedicated to urban mobility from LEV’s to (even flying) cars. It quickly became a not-to-be-missed show where many actors are displaying there innovations. This year conferences and exhibitors confirmed the main trends …
Continue reading "Feedback from Paris’ Autonomy show"
This is a sponsored article. If you would like to sponsor an article to be published on shared-micromobility.com, please send an email to: contact@shared-micromobility.com. Amidst the fast-changing mobility industry that is being disrupted by revolutionary technologies, it is also important to pay attention to those companies providing the underlying technological innovations. This is where we …
Continue reading "Meet SharingOS, the future of shared-mobility"
Are Jump Bikes turning to a dock-based solution??? Yes and no. In order to better manage the battery charging of its bikes, Jump designed a docking station allowing to return and charge the fleet. It kind of goes against the “dockless” option but … We can see with Citi-Bikes, Vélib or Capital Bikeshare, that …
Continue reading "Jump is testing charging stations!"
Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on september 28th that it will grant licenses to six operators of dockless bike-share services by the end of october (The measure was announced in march 2018). Full licenses have been granted to Ofo Mobike and SGBike, while Anywheel, Grab Cycle and Qiqi Zhixiang will get sandbox licenses, and will …
Continue reading "Six companies to operate in Singapore under the new license regime"
As in any major city, Paris public transport operator RATP is trying to develop its network and implement new solutions in order to fulfill a door-to-door offer. It implies multimodality, and as the sharing sector is currently buzzing (Bird, Lime, Bolt, and Wind launched just over the last 3 months, ofo, Mobike and soon Oribiky, …
Continue reading "In Paris, ofo and RATP are riding together"
The world of bike-sharing is focused on dockless solutions, as the news feed is quite huge, and the picture of actors, rules, and so on is changing everyday. But dock-based projects are not dead… at all! In this category, PBSC Urban Solutions seems to have taken the lead in 2018, by contracting with many …
Continue reading "Dock-based projects are still doing well, thanks!"
I already wrote about Seattle’s dockless pilot program, one of the pioneers regarding regulation. Two times actually… Well it’s time for the second update, as some changes occured during summer!! A short reminder about the pilot: Spin, Ofo and Lime launched their services in july 2017, with around 10 000 bikes in total. In …
Continue reading "Last update on Seattle dockless bikeshare pilot"
At first glance, it looks like a real innovation. Faithful to its spirit, Mobike is proposing a singular design for its pedal-assisted bicycle (E-bike) launched on july 5th, with futuristic lines and ever more integrated components. In comparison to Lime’s Lime-E, the development process is clearly not the same… Mobike chose to use a central …
Continue reading "Mobike launched its E-bike (chinese version)"
The battle of Bikes Vs Cars have been highlighted in 2015 in the famous documentary from Fredrik Gertten. Now Uber is giving its own version of the match, E-bikes VS Cars! Remember Uber’s investments in 2018: acquisition of JUMP Bikes for US$100M in april, then investment in Lime for a part of the total US$335M. JUMP …
Continue reading "Bikes Vs Cars, Uber version"
It’s been under work since 2017, and finally started in july 2018: New-York City Department Of Transportation (NYC DOT) have been working hard on how to integrate dockless bike-share operators in the city without cannibalizing its historical Citi Bike dock-based scheme. For such a huge metropolis where bike-sharing is a real part of the …
Continue reading "All about NYC dockless bike-share pilot"
The last days and weeks have seen a lot of interesting information popping out about dockless bike-sharing companies’ strategy. Each of the major Asian and US ones have taken important decision, either on the markets they are working on, or on the solutions they offer. Spin decided to stop bikeshare, and will now focus …
Continue reading "A dockless bike-sharing review"
Everybody, even outside the world of bikesharing knows Lime (formerly Lime Bike). The company is one of the most developing in freefloating systems operation: they started with human-powered bicycles, then electric-assisted bicycles and electric scooters (their last important and strategic launch being in Paris on june 22nd). Well here is the big news: Lime is …
Continue reading "Lime is willing to launch “electric transit pods”"
We already knew that Motivate was working on a dockless solution, as they applied for an operation permit in New York, for exemple. Well, a Tweet on june 1st released the first photos of the bike, and announced at the same time its launch in North San José, extending the Ford Go-Bike area. Exciting development …
Continue reading "Big news from Motivate"
If you are a bicycle geek like me, you already know Superpedestrian, the MIT spinout company behind the Copenhagen Wheel. This famous product basically turns any bicycle into an E-bike, as the wheel integrates the motor, the battery, charged by back-pedalling, all the electronic and sensors. So famous that it has been shown in a …
Continue reading "Superpedestrian enters the bike-sharing game!"
I already wrote about the early troubles faced by Smovengo, the new Vélib’ Métropole operator in Paris in january (#velibgate). The saga continues, and well, my “wish that Smovengo will catch up the delay to offer a real service, and quick enough not to loose users” has not been fullfilled… at all. On the contrary, …
Continue reading "“Vélibgate” continues…"
Maybe a first in bike-sharing? Copenhagen’s Bycyklen system has been hacked during the night of may 4th, by a still unidentified person or group! The attack, qualified as “primitive” by the operator, has been performed “by a person with a high level of knowledge of the IT structure of our system”. As a result, all of the …
Continue reading "Hackers attacked Bycycklen in Copenhagen!"
Changes are coming for NYC. We already saw two big moves from the local public authorities that will have a big impact on the bike-share use in the Big Apple. On december 15th 2017, New York Department of Transportation (DOT) released a Request for expression of interest (RFEI) for a dockless bike-share program. Considering …
Continue reading "A coming boom of bike-share use in New York City?"
I wondered… but NO, it’s not a shared E-bike but a classic E-Bike that oBike offers for sale on a specific e-shop. It is kind of a surprise, as after the launch of Limebike and Spin’s E-bikes, we are only waiting for the launch date of its concurrents from the Asian companies Mobike, ofo… and …
Continue reading "oBike innovates with its EVS E-bike"
Once again, citizens of Geneva will have to wait before seeing shared bikes in the streets of the Swiss city. It’s a real soap opera that is taking place there, because of a fight between the two strong local actors: Publibike (dock and dockless solutions) and Intermobility with its Velospot system (dockless). Since 2007, it is …
Continue reading "Chess game in Geneva between Publibike and Intermobility"
Not much information so far, but LimeBike is looking for Juicers to manage the charging of their Lime-S scooters! Basically, a Juicer will be a LimeBike contractor, whose mission will be to: pickup specified low battery scooters with their own vehicles charge it in their own buildings deploy it in the morning where LimeBike …
Continue reading "Will citizens charge dockless E-bikes and E-scooters?"
Cyclehop, the US operator in charge of Orlando, Santa Monica, Vancouver… station-based programs chose to change its strategy by offering a dockless E-bike-sharing solution! I was raising the issue of operation cost in different articles about Jump Bicycles or Zehus’ Bitride, and here is the big news with Cyclehop’s HOPR solution: they decided not …
Continue reading "HOPR will try to revolutionize dockless E-bikeshare!"
Zehus is a well renowned company created by a team of engineers and PHDs from Politecnico di Milano. They merged in 2014 with Flykly, in order to compete with Superpedestrian’s Copenhagen wheel in the market of “smart-wheels”: autonomous bicycle wheels with integrated battery, electronics and motor that can transform any bike into an E-bike just by …
Continue reading "Zehus to challenge chinese operators in Milan"
The municipality of Bologna, Italy, just signed a contract with the local operator Idri Bk, after a tender procedure organised by SRM, the local Authority for Public Transport in Bologna area. Idri Bk is the Italian operator for Mobike, managing schemes in Florence, Rome, Milan and Cremona. The tender was forecasting a 800 000€ …
Continue reading "Bologna invests public funds in its dockless bikeshare program with Mobike!"
I already highlighted Singapore’s pioneering way of regulating dockless bike-share schemes on its territory, already 3 months ago. LTA introduced a MOU to operators in order to control parking behaviour, data sharing and service for the 100 000 bikes operated by 6 companies (oBike, ofo, Mobike, GBikes, SG Bike and ShareBikeSG). But still, we discovered …
Continue reading "Singapore is still improving its dockless bike-share regulation"
In december 2017, I published a review about the problematic operation of the Gobbe.bike service in Lille. It was the first dockless bike-share service to be launched in France in october 2017. The green bikes then appeared in Reims, Paris, Lyon, Brussels (BEL) and Torino (ITA) by the end of 2017… but not for long. …
Continue reading "The expected end for Gobee.bike"
The two main american dockless bike-share brands announced an upcoming service of E-scooter-share! Spin was first, revealing on february 8th its will to develop shared E-scooter services in the US. According to Spin, it is their step “into a true multi-modal mobility platform for cities and campuses.” The scooter itself is an “electrified Razor-like one, …
Continue reading "Scooter-sharing is the new trend!"
For quite a while now, we can read every month news relating collaborations between bike-share companies and ride-hailing companies. Agreements can vary in content, but we clearly feel that many actors of the shared-mobility sector want to propose a complete solution to their users. In China, Didi Chuxing is THE ride-hailing giant: they even …
Continue reading "Love affair between ride-hailing and bike-sharing"
Two dockless companies recently announced a future release of their own cryptocurrencies: while riding a oBike, you’ll be able to earn oCoins! oBike partnered with the Singaporean non-profit organisation Tron, who is operating the eponymous blockchain-based decentralized protocol TRON. Their cryptocurrency, the Tronix (TRX) is ranked 14th worldwide. The more they ride, the more users …
Continue reading "How cryptocurrencies can change bike-sharing"
Bike-sharing is developing fast currently, but is always using classical adult bikes. When you look at the diversity in the bike market, with cargo, trikes, recumbents, handibikes… you can see that their are a lot of other possibilities, to adapt to more user and more usage. Of course, I’m not asking for big scale schemes, …
Continue reading "Let’s open our minds: All-kinds-of-bike-sharing"
You know it now, the trend of dockless bike-share is now viral. Some Cities are now questioning the coherence of their station-based bike-share schemes to replace it by dockless ones. We already pointed the case of Seattle, where Pronto’s public funded program definitely closed in march 2017 and gave space to their already famous dockless bike-share …
Continue reading "A strange bike-share evolution process in Minneapolis and St Paul"
January 1st 2018 was not only the start of a new (great) year, but also the beginning of a new chapter for Paris’ Vélib. After 10 years of services, JC Decaux’s historical grey Vélib’ retired, and saw a few of its successor hitting the streets of the French capital. This is the first full transfer …
Continue reading "The difficult mutation from Vélib’ to Vélib’ Métropole in Paris"
The dockless bike-share pilot program in Seattle is over! Don’t panic, the bikes wil stay in the streets at least until july 2018. It only means that the data collection period stops… Meanwhile, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will start analysing the data with its partners at the University of Washington in january in order …
Continue reading "Seattle will evaluate its pilot program beginning of 2018"
2018 will be electric, at least in the field of bike-sharing! On january 9th, 3 companies unveiled their E-bike models that will hit the streets in the beginning of the year, during CES Las Vegas. Motivate, the station-based solution provider, will launch in april a one year/250 bikes pilot in the streets of San …
Continue reading "Happy new E-year!!"
After the collapse of major chinese dockless bike-sharing companies, we are starting to discover what the deposit are using for… According to the law, deposits should be kept untouched, as they have to stay available for direct refund if the user unsubscribes. But there is different ways to use it… Wukong, Coolqi, Mingbike, Bluegogo… …
Continue reading "How Chinese dockless bike-share firms are managing customers deposits?"
The indian market is quite specific: anarchical trafic, no cycling infrastructures, crowded roads and streets, social inequality…. For all these reasons, less than 10 projects are in place so far (check the Bike-sharing World Map, and remember Bophal). And none of the big dockless bike-share companies dared to give it a try, even just to …
Continue reading "Indian companies entering the dockless bike-sharing battle!"
How do you react to the craze of dockless bike-sharing when you’re an historical supplier of station-based solutions? Zagster chose to widen its offer by launching a new dockless system: PACE. The solution is said to offer “all the benefits of dockless bike sharing with none of the drawbacks”. Zagster developped 3 features to be …
Continue reading "Zagster launch its own “dockless” bike-share system!"
In October, Gobee.bike launched in Lille, France, 500 of its dockless shared bikes. It was the first market for the company, and the first dockless bike-share scheme to be launched in France. Two months later, the assessment is quite mixed… The first problematic to emerge has been the privatisation of bikes. Some unscrupulous users …
Continue reading "The tough experience of Gobee.Bike in Lille"
Bikeshare-news.com was present at ECF’s PEBSS workshop 2017 in Brussels on november 20th-21st. We will produce several articles in the following month to report the main ideas that have been emphasized during these two days. Second chapter: thoughts around dockless bike-sharing. Guess what…. the central topic of the PEBSS workshop was dockless bike-share! …
Continue reading "Echoes from PEBSS workshop 2017 #2: talk about dockless bike-share"
Mobike has recently been named in the 2017 Champions of the Earth by the United Nations Environment, “in recognition of the company’s transformative contribution to the advancement of low carbon public transport”. This sentence opens the debate, as the environmental impact of a public transport has to measure the production, operation, and recycling cost. With …
Continue reading "Mobike named “Champions of the Earth” by the United Nations Environment"
Softbank is definitely the of bike-sharing in Japan. They first launched Docomo bike-share in february 2017 together with NTT Docomo, making around 150 electric-assisted bicycles available at 32 stores in Tokyo and elsewhere. They are equipped with a Smart lock, activatable via a travel card or a pin code. Then, they launched Hello Cycling together with …
Continue reading "Bike-sharing growing in Japan with 7-Eleven"
Bikeshare-news.com was present at ECF’s PEBSS workshop 2017 in Brussels on november 20th-21st. We will produce several articles in the following month to report the main ideas that have been emphasized during these two days. First chapter: data. A word was coming quite often during the different talks, surrounded with mystery: DATA ! …
Continue reading "Echoes from PEBSS workshop 2017 #1 : DATA"
It’s one of the first reports with a proper data analysis that have been published about dockless bike-sharing, about the pilot program launched in Seattle where Spin, LimeBike, Ofo are operating 6000 bikes. The Seattle department of transport (SDOT) released the first data analysis after the first two months of operation. And well, looking …
Continue reading "First feedback from the dockless bike-share pilot in Seattle!"
As bike-sharing is getting more mature, the question of equity is becoming central for authorities in order to allow low-income citizens to benefit from the local bike-sharing schemes. And YES it can be totally free: Pittsburgh’s Port Authority (transportation authority) and Healthy Ride (bike-share operator) announced unlimited free 15 minutes rides to anyone with a …
Continue reading "Yes, bike-sharing can be free!"
Hoho, what a rollercoaster! Bluegogo was doing fine at the beginning of 2017: with a 58M$ fundraise , they were in the top 3 of chinese dockless bike-sharing companies, and the first to try to conquer the rest of the world, announcing in january 2017 a launch in San Francisco’s streets. After dropping hundreds of …
Continue reading "The end of Bluegogo…"
We knew they had money… quite a lot. Mobike, Ofo and friends have raised billions of dollars in 2017: But Spin climbed another step, by adding political power to its arsenal. In order to strengthen for the ongoing territory war between all actors of dockless bike-sharing, Spin confirmed on november 7th three big …
Continue reading "The new power of dockless bike-sharing firms: politicians!"
What a surprise for me when I saw this photo on the PBSC Urban Solutions’ website: Yes, the well-known Montreal-based provider added an option of a smart equipment from the customer market to its bikes! That’s one of the most intelligent and ambitious integration on a shared bike to my knowledge. SmartHalo is a …
Wowww, Mobike making a nice move on the waves of the Gold Coast, Australia! Mobike signed an exclusivity agreement with local autorithies, and gathered with Transit Australia Group and local Good Cycle to operate the 2000 bikes of the system. Bikes will be available in the cities of Southport, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, and Varsity Lakes …
Continue reading "Mobike surfing the wave in Australia!"
Jump Mobility is the new trend in bike-sharing in the US. With its e-bikes, the brand from Social Bicycles uses the same technology as its many schemes in the US, UK, Czech Republic and Poland, a dockless geo-fenced system. If the idea is good, it raises a main problematic compared to similar systems with mechanical …
Continue reading "JUMP bikes, first ever dockless system with e-bikes!"
Restrictions are coming for dockless bike-sharing firms… even in the mothermarket of China! Chinese authorities have banned any expansion of the existing fleet, trying to answer parking chaos, traffic congestion and public safety concerns in 13 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Guangzhou. It is one explanation to the big move of the 2nd half of …
Continue reading "China’s regulation with dockless bikes"
Today was held in Paris the presentation of the new Velib’, that will launch on january 1st, 2018. The press conference happened along the Bassin de la Villette, and gathered Anne HIDALGO (mayor of Paris), Patrick OLLIER (president of Métropole du Grand Paris) and Catherine BARRATI-ELBAZ (president of Autolib-Velib syndicate). The project will spread next …
Continue reading "The new Velib’ unveiled!"
I was writing previously about helmets in station-based schemes. But the development of dockless bike-sharing in Australia, with Ofo recently launching 400 bikes in Sydney, raised the same question for providers: Do I have to provide helmet with my bike? How can I provide it? Most of the companies, Ofo included, answered yes …
Continue reading "Speaking of helmets… Dockless in Australia"
When you think about cyclist safety, you first think about helmets. And in every country, the debate around mandatory helmet lawson bicycles are… intense. Boom! For sure it has an incidence on the bike-sharing usage and business. There is a just 4 station-based bike-share programs in places under mandatory helmet laws: Seattle’s Pronto. …
Continue reading "Helmets and bike sharing"
It might not be one of the biggest companies in the new trend of dockless bike-sharing, but we noticed Urbo (currently operating in London) for its different philosophy and approach. When you open the home page of the website, you can read “we cooperate with cities in planning and implementing the Urbo bike-sharing system into their community”. …
Continue reading "Urbo, the sustainable dockless bike-share?"
I wouldn’t to be in the head of bike-sharing business developper in charge of India. For sure, the market is huge, but its cultural singularity make the launch of public bike-share system a big risk! You’ll better build a strong risk analysis… As a proof, the first fully automatised bike-share programs launched only in …
Continue reading "India, a new market opening… or not"
With bike sharing programs popping all accross cities, how does the user manage its 10 apps on his smartphone? Between public transport, car sharing, scooter sharing and bike sharing, you can have more than 10 apps and services to deal with. Some cities already understand the major priority in aggregating all the systems in one …
Continue reading "Transit, the future of… transit apps"
3…2…1…GO! The race to Paris is open for the dockless bike-sharing companies. Hong-Kong based Gobee.bike made the first move today, placing the first dozens of a couple of hundreds bike in the streets of the city of light. After a launch last week in Lille with 400 bikes, Gobee.bike carry on with its conquest of France. …
Continue reading "The race to Paris!"
As every city confronted with dockless bike sharing, Singapore faced major troubles with parking. And as you may know, Singapore government likes order and cleanliness… So they didn’t wait for anarchy, but instead invited all parties around the table: The public authorities: Land Transport Authorities (LTA), the National Parks Board (NParks) and all 16 …
Continue reading "How is Singapour dealing with dockless bike sharing"
Ho yeah!! Lot of heavyweights in the competition for Bicing 2018 tender: Tradisa Logicauto + Bonopark: the logisitics company is associated with the one suppliying and operating BiciMad ein Madrid, with over 2000 electric bikes (and lot of troubles…) Cespa + PBSC: the waste collection and laundry company is associated with the well reknowed …
Continue reading "Big fight in Barcelona for the new Bicing project"
Bad publicity for Bewegen, one of the pionners in ebike-sharing… Less than a year after the launch in october 2016, Baltimore Bike Share has been shutted down from september 12th until october 15th this year, after decision of the city officials. The program was suffering a huge wave of bike run-aways theft and vandalism, in …
Continue reading "Lock failure for Bewegen"
Atomic news! Now Kim Jong-Un not only have rockets to travel, but also a brand new Bike-share system in Pyongyang! It might not be as fast, but it surely save on petrol… The country is actually facing an oil shortage, so the governement is trying to diversify the means of transportation in the capital. At …
Continue reading "Kim-Bikes… Bike sharing in North Korea"
An unprecedented wave… Well, don’t be afraid, we are only talking about bike sharing… But since spring 2017, the occidental world is more and more frightened by two words coming from China: Mobike and Ofo! In fact these two chinese companies have globally shaking up the bike sharing world in only a couple of months, …
Continue reading "Yellow (and red) peril in bike sharing…"
French giant JC Decaux has been confirmed as supplier for Velov bike-sharing system in Lyon for 15 more years. What a surprise… as it was the only candidate to take over! It was actually quite a controversory market as Lyon Municipality gathered bike-share, intelligent bus stops and advertising, a unique case in France since 2009. …
Continue reading "JC Decaux confirmed in Lyon (FRA) with hybrid bikes"