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Wired Magazine
A P2P Network for Bikes
By Daithí Ó hAnluain | Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Aug. 22, 2005 PT
Thousands of commuters in Lyon, France, are using pedal power instead
of gas, under an ambitious new program that lets people rent bikes from
public racks at low cost.
It's kind of like peer to peer for public transport.
The rent-a-bike scheme, called Vélo'v Grand Lyon, is open to anyone
armed with a credit card. It costs 1 euro ($1.20) an hour, but there is
no charge for the first 30 minutes. Since 90 percent of trips take less
than half an hour, most subscribers pay nothing.
In just three months, the program has signed up 15,000 subscribers who
take 4,000 trips a day and travel over 24,800 miles a week on 2,000
public bikes at 150 bike stations.
"It's a very novel and interesting scheme," said Brian Ó Gallachóir,
senior researcher at the Sustainable Energy Research Group in
University College Cork, Ireland. "Certainly, bikes are one of the most
efficient forms of public transport. Once built, they cause zero
emissions."
Lyon isn't the first city to try a public rent-a-bike or borrow-a-bike
plan, but its program is showing more legs than most. Earlier efforts
failed because they ran out of money, like the Yellow Bike project in
Portland, Oregon. Or the bikes were simply stolen, as happened with
Amsterdam's White Bikes.
Theft is not a problem for Vélo'v. Users must submit their credit-card
information to become a subscriber. They also pay a 150 euro ($180)
deposit, either by check or credit card pre-authorization. If a
subscriber keeps the bike for more than 24 hours, the deposit is cashed.
Technology helps, too, and Lyon's distinctive silver and red bicycles
are packed with it. Attempts to steal bikes from a rack set off an
alarm, while a built-in lock secures bikes during rentals.
Motion sensors turn on a red taillight when the bike comes to a stop. A
microchip exchanges information with electronic bike racks, identifying
the bike, the subscriber and when it was rented and returned. Bikes
even have sensors that check the brakes, lights, tire pressure and
gears every time they are parked. If there's a problem, the station
won't rent the bike.
A control center keeps track of the data, sending out mechanics or a
shuttle to move bikes from one station to another as needed. The bikes
are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, though currently
weekday rush hours see the greatest demand, indicating that people are
using the service to commute. On weekends, there's a 2 a.m. rush.
"Startup and development costs were high," said Nathalie Delebarre, a
spokeswoman for JCDecaux, the company behind the program. "But they
will be amortized over time, and as the service spreads to other
cities, we can expect some economies of scale."
The service costs 1,000 euros ($1,200) per bike each year, or 2 million
euros ($2.4 million) total, rising to 4 million euros ($4.9 million) by
2007 when 4,000 bikes will be installed. Decaux absorbs the entire cost
for setting up and running the service, and returns any rental fees the
service collects to Grand Lyon as part of its contract to use
advertising space on Lyon's public bus shelters. Decaux's bus shelter
contract is for 13 years, so in the midterm the system is secure.
Other cities are interested in adopting the scheme. Montpellier,
Marseille, Geneva, Barcelona and even Amsterdam, the cycling capital of
Europe, all sent delegations to examine it.
"This sounds like a promising project, and it will be interesting to
see if it can be sustained," said John Andersen, editor of
BicyclingLife.com.
