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"
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!"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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 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!"
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"
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"
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"
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"
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…"
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?"
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"
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!"
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"
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"
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!"
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!"
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!"
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"