Public Bikesharing in North America During a Period of Rapid Expansion: Understanding Business Models, Industry Trends & User Impacts, MTI Report 12-29

Public bikesharing—the shared use of a bicycle fleet—is an innovative transportation strategy that has recently emerged in major cities around the world, including North America. Information technology (IT)-based bikesharing systems typically position bicycles throughout an urban environment, among a network of docking stations, for immediate access. Trips can be one-way, round-trip, or both, depending on the operator. Bikesharing can serve as a first-and-last mile connector to other modes, as well as for both short and long distance destinations. In 2012, 22 IT-based public bikesharing systems were operating in the United States, with a total of 884,442 users and 7,549 bicycles. Four IT-based programs in Canada had a total of 197,419 users and 6,115 bicycles. Two IT-based programs in Mexico had a total of 71,611 users and 3,680 bicycles. (Membership numbers reflect the total number of short- and long-term users.) This study evaluates public bikesharing in North America, reviewing the change in travel behavior exhibited by members of different programs in the context of their business models and operational environment. This Phase II research builds on data collected during our Phase I research conducted in 2012. During the 2012 research (Phase I), researchers conducted 14 expert interviews with industry experts and public officials in the United States and Canada, as well as 19 interviews with the manager and/or key staff of IT-based bikesharing organizations. For more information on the Phase I research, please see the Shaheen et al., 2012 report Public Bikesharing in North America: Early Operator and User Understanding. For this Phase II study, an additional 23 interviews were conducted with IT-based bikesharing organizations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in Spring 2013. Notable developments during this period include the ongoing expansion of public bikesharing in North America, including the recent launches of multiple large bikesharing programs in the United States (i.e., Citi Bike in New York City, Divvy in Chicago, and Bay Area Bike Share in the San Francisco Bay Area). In addition to expert interviews, the authors conducted two kinds of surveys with bikesharing users. One was the online member survey. This survey was sent to all people for whom the operator had an email address.The population of this survey was mainly annual members of the bikesharing system, and the members took the survey via a URL link sent to them from the operator. The second survey was an on-street survey. This survey was designed for anyone, including casual users (i.e., those who are not members of the system and use it on a short-term basis), to take “on-street” via a smartphone. The member survey was deployed in five cities: Montreal, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and Mexico City. The on-street survey was implemented in three cities: Boston, Salt Lake City, and San Antonio

Advances on Smart Cities and Smart Buildings

Modern cities are facing the challenge of combining competitiveness at the global city scale and sustainable urban development to become smart cities. A smart city is a high-tech, intensive and advanced city that connects people, information, and city elements using new technologies in order to create a sustainable, greener city; competitive and innovative commerce; and an increased quality of life. This Special Issue collects the recent advancements in smart cities and covers different topics and aspects

Pyöräilyn ympäristötekijöiden mittaaminen esineiden internetin sovelluksia varten

Increasing population in cities creates increasing amount of traffic, which leads to emissions and traffic congestion. Smart Cities set out to solve the challenges urban cities face due to the increased population, using Internet of Things as means to monitor the assets as it allows non-traditional devices to connect as a part of global information network. At the same time, cycling has increased its popularity as an environmentally friendly as well as healthy transportation method. To further its usage, infrastructure in cities must support cycling as a serious transportation method. For this purpose, it is important to include bicycles to Smart City with measurements of cycling and its environment. This thesis studies if it is possible to measure factors affecting cycling environment and assess route quality without using sensors built in bicycle frame. Decision to avoid sensors embedded in frame stemmed from incentive to have easily available and inexpensive measuring device, which does not bind the cyclists to use bicycles from specific brand or require them to purchase new bike if they are interested in participating in measuring. For evaluating the feasibility of cycling environment measuring, prototype called BikeBox was built and used during test drives. In addition, an online survey was held, which received answers from 97 cyclists. The survey queried about their cycling habits and preferences to better understand what kind of data they would be interested in. The prototype included accelerometer for measuring road quality, photoresistor to identify poorly lit areas and GPS module for location and timestamps, which are needed for other measurements as well as finding possible stopping points and slow areas on the route. Based on the test drives it is possible to identify quality changes on road surface as well as changes in lighting. Inaccurate GPS positioning does pose a challenge for pinpointing exact locations, though. Using location and timestamps it is possible to calculate the speed along different parts of the route, including areas which cause interruptions for the cyclists. This thesis presents results from 7 different example drives, though during testing phase more test driving was done. To get comprehensive coverage, crowdsourcing should be considered as the data gathering method. Based on the survey fastness and length of the route, amount of stops and interruptions and road condition are one of the most important factors for the cyclists. When queried what kind of information cyclists would like to receive, the road condition related factors were most commonly mentioned.Kaupungistumisen seurauksena väkimäärät kaupungeissa kasvavat, mikä tuo mukanaan kasvavat liikennemäärät, ruuhkat ja liikennepäästöt. Älykkäät kaupungit ovat reaktio kaupungistumisesta seuraaviin haasteisiin. Älykkäät kaupungit pyrkivät seuraamaan ja kontrolloimaan kaupungin infrastruktuuria, apunaan esineiden internet. Esineiden internet mahdollistaa epäperinteisten laitteiden yhdistämisen maailmanlaajuiseen tietoverkkoon. Samaan aikaan pyöräilyn suosio on kasvanut ympäristöystävällisenä ja terveellisenä liikennemuotona. Jos pyöräilyn määrää halutaan jatkossakin kasvattaa, kaupungin infrastruktuurin täytyy tukea pyöräilyä vakavasti otettavana liikennemuotona. Jotta tämä voidaan saavuttaa, on pyöräilijöiden pyöräily-ympäristön ja pyöräilytapojen ymmärtäminen tärkeää. Tässä työssä tutkitaan, onko pyöräily-ympäristöön vaikuttavia tekijöitä mahdollista mitata sensoreilla, joita ei ole istutettu polkupyörän runkoon. Runkoon upotettuja sensoreita haluttiin välttää, jotta mittauslaitteet voisivat olla mahdollisimman suuren joukon saatavilla, eikä pyöräilijä olisi sidottu käyttämään tietyn valmistajan polkupyörää. Lisäksi pyritään selvittämään, minkälaisesta pyöräily-ympäristöön liittyvästä datasta pyöräilijät olisivat kiinnostuneita. Tähän tarkoitukseen rakennettiin prototyyppi PyöräPurkista (BikeBox). Lisäksi toteutettiin internet-kysely, johon vastasi 97 polkupyöräilijää. Kyselyllä selvitettiin pyöräilijöiden pyöräilytapoja ja -mieltymyksiä ja sitä, millainen pyöräily-ympäristöstä kertova data kiinnostaisi heitä. Prototyyppiin sisällytettiin kiihtyvyysanturi tien pinnan laadun mittaamiseen, valoanturi heikosti valaistujen alueiden tunnistamiseen ja GPS-moduuli, jolla saadaan sijantitieto ja kellonaika muita mittauksia varten. Lisäksi sijaintitiedosta ja kellonajasta voidaan laskea ajonopeus ja paikat, missä pyöräilijä on joutunut keskeyttämään ajonsa. Testiajojen perusteella on mahdollista havaita tien pinnanlaadun muutos sekä muutos valaistusolosuhteissa. Epätarkkuudet GPS-paikannuksessa vaikeuttavat kuitenkin ongelmakohtien tarkkaa paikallistamista. Tämä työ käsittelee aiheita 7 erillisen testiajon kautta, vaikka testausvaiheessa ajettiinkin useampia testiajoja. Kattavien mittausten saamiseksi joukkoistamista kannattaisi harkita datankeräysmetodina. Tehdyn kyselyn perusteella reitin nopeus, pituus, reitillä olevien keskeytysten määrä ja tien kunto ovat tärkeimpiä reitin laatuun vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Erilaiset pyöräilyreitin kuntoon liittyvät asiat kiinnostivat eniten kun kysyttiin, minkälaista dataa pyöräilijät haluaisivat saada

Tadpole Tandem Electrically Assisted Tricycle

The purpose of this senior project was to investigate the possibility of making bikes (as a regular mode of transportation) look much more appealing to the general public. To that end, an electric motor assist system was added to make it easier for the operators of the vehicle. A fairing was added to protect the rider from wind and rain, and an electrical subsystem consisting of a microcontroller and many other components was also added. The electrical subsystem was meant to store the information of different riders, calculate calories burned using a heart beat sensor, and increase visibility using strategically-placed LEDs. Lastly, racks were added in the back to increase storage space, and a lock was added to increase the inherent security of the trike

IoT on Shared Vehicles

Nowadays the need of people to have the power to control everything is increasing. Due to the technological evolution together with the Internet of things, this is already possible. In this context, the shared vehicles are a good example. With just one click people can use a vehicle from a vehicle sharing eet anywhere, anytime. During the realization of this project the uMDC was developed. It is a small device capable of managing and controlling di erent types of vehicles, with the main focus being the electric bicycles. As a nal conclusion of the project, the results obtained with the uMDC have proved very attractive. During its integration in the electric bicycles, the system was capable of controlling the bicycle's di erent components, as required for the rst prototype.Hoje em dia, a necessidade das pessoas terem controlo sobre tudo está a aumentar. Devido á evolução tecnológica juntamente com a Internet das coisas, isso já é possível. Neste contexto, os veículos partilhados são um bom exemplo disso. Com um simples clique, as pessoas podem usufruir e uma viatura de uma frota de veículos partilhados em qualquer lugar, a qualquer hora. Durante a realização deste projeto, foi desenvolvido o uMDC. Um pequeno ispositivo capaz de gerir e controlar diferentes tipos de veículos, sendo o foco principal as bicicletas elétricas. No nal deste projeto, os resultados obtidos com o uMDC foram bastante satisfatórios. Durante a sua integração nas bicicletas elétricas, o sistema foi capaz de controlar diferentes componentes das mesmas, como requerido para primeiro protótipo

Toward Sustainability: Bike-Sharing Systems Design, Simulation and Management

The goal of this Special Issue is to discuss new challenges in the simulation and management problems of both traditional and innovative bike-sharing systems, to ultimately encourage the competitiveness and attractiveness of BSSs, and contribute to the further promotion of sustainable mobility. We have selected thirteen papers for publication in this Special Issue

Public Bikesharing in North America: Early Operator and User Understanding, MTI Report 11-19

This study evaluates public bikesharing in North America, reviewing the advances in technology and major events during its rapid expansion. We conducted 14 interviews with industry experts, public officials, and governmental agencies in the United States and Canada during summer 2011/spring 2012 and interviewed all 19 IT-based bikesharing organizations in the United States and Canada in spring 2012. Several bikesharing insurance experts were also consulted in spring 2012. Notable developments during this period include the emergence of a close partnership between vendor and operator and technological advances, such as mobile bike-docking stations that can be moved to different locations and real-time bike/station tracking to facilitate system rebalancing and provide user information

City of Concord FY 2011 annual report.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

Steering towards more cycling in Tallinn Assessing policy’s role in promoting urban cycling in “new cycle cities”

A growing trend in cities around the word is to promote cycling to make them a more livable place to live in. Many big cities in Europe such as London, Paris, and Vienna have started to consider cycling not only as a mode of transport but also as a way to reduce pollution and congestion problems. Cities with long cycling culture such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam started decades ago a shift from a car dependent mobility culture towards more urban cycling, and they have now high quality cycling infrastructures in place and a modal share of cycling of 36 –38 %. On the other hand, the rapid growth of private car ownership in Western Europe in 60s and 70s, was in the Eastern European cities such as in Tallinn postponed until the end of 90s, resulting in a high use of cars but also of public transport, the latter a mode of transport inherent to the Soviet Union. In Tallinn, where the cycling culture is weak and the modal share of cycling is as low as 1 %, politicians are reluctant to promote bicycling at the expense of private car accessibility. As a consequence, car traffic is increasing in the city and Tallinn suffers from lack of space, traffic congestion, as well as air and noise pollution. However, the city has a high cycling potential mainly due to frequent traffic congestion, lack of space in the city centre, high levels of noise and air pollution. A major challenge is to carefully plan cycling policies in Tallinn, containing the necessary policy instruments and including both soft and hard measures. Such measures should advocate utility cycling but also provide safe and comfortable cycling infrastructure for its residents. In addition to the ‘old cycling cities’, knowledge and policy transfer from so-called cycling ‘starter cities’ are becoming increasingly common. Successful policy transfer requires an understanding of the current situation in the receiving city and evaluating the transferrable policy, which helps to identify policy implementation process barriers and expected benefits. The key to more cycling in Tallinn is a well-designed policy package that integrates all stakeholders in overcoming the various barriers. Keywords: Utility Cycling, Policy Instruments, Cycling Policies, Policy Evaluation, Policy Transfe

Smart dock for bicycle protection in theft-prone urban areas

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2017.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Cycling, when utilised as a form of transport in an urban environment, holds valuable benefits and sustainable advantages for a wide variety of stakeholders. Various barriers exist that contribute to a low user adoption of cycling in an urban area, despite a high and growing user adoption of recreational cycling. Bicycle theft and inadequate bicycle storage facilities for on-street urban bicycle storage are amongst these barriers identified. In theft-prone urban areas, urban cyclists are hampered by the prevalence of theft when bicycles are temporarily secured during urban commuting trips. This can negatively affect an individual’s attitude towards urban cycling, and thereby increase the difficulty for regional authorities to draw from the advantages accompanying a high urban-cycling prevalence. This study proposes an on-street smart bicycle dock that is capable of adequately protecting a bicycle during an urban commuting stop-over, thereby aiding in the removal of the related barriers weighing against a higher user adoption of urban cycling. To ensure a successful and sustainable solution, three important stakeholders were considered in order to incorporate their requirements and behaviour into the solution. Bicycle thieves were interviewed and studied to understand the methods and motives involved in urban bicycle theft, active cyclists were investigated through questionnaires to understand their requirements and attitude towards a potential solution, while a local municipal and academic institution involved in the potential implementation of the solution were engaged with to understand and incorporate their needs and requirements. A conceptual solution that serves as the research model was produced by turning the relevant insights obtained from the research activities into product design specifications that served as a quantitative template to guide the development of the conceptual solution. The resulting solution was broken up into four functional areas that were developed separately but dependent on each other, after which they were combined to collectively form the final solution. The first solution area sees the development of a mechanical steel frame that secures a bicycle docked in the system, by physically locking its wheels and frame using a novel locking method. This frame protects the bicycle’s critical components against the majority of tools and methods commonly used in bicycle theft, and was found to provide better protection than existing solutions, accept against theft using a hacksaw where only 71% of the required protection was provided. The second area sees the development of a sensing system that uses force transducers situated below the bicycle, to convert any disturbance on the bicycle into a digital time-discrete signal that is processed by a signal processing algorithm developed, in order to detect any attempt of theft performed on the docked bicycle. The sensing system obtained a false-negative rate of 8%, a detection duration of 8.6 seconds, and a false-positive rate of 15%. The third area sees the development of a locking mechanism that engages and disengages the mechanical frame’s protection in 1.4 seconds, in a way that is universally accessible to different users without them requiring a physical method of access. The lock obtained a locking reliability of 96%. The fourth area sees the development and implementation of system elements that are responsible for the system’s integration and general control, including a system state machine, user interface, cloud platform, and communication capabilities with accompanying communication protocol for the various system elements. The resulting solution’s performance was measured through five tests aimed at addressing different performance areas of the solution. The overall performance of the model is determined as satisfactory, with it meeting the majority of the initial requirements and specifications defined, and thereby successfully addressing the problem statement relevant to this research.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Fietsry, as 'n vorm van vervoer in 'n stedelike gebied, hou waardevolle en volhoubare voordele vir 'n wye verskeidenheid belanghebbendes in. Daar is verskeie faktore wat kan veroorsaak dat die gebruikers-syfer van fietsryers in 'n stedelike gebied afneem, ten spyte van 'n moontlike hoë en groeiende gebruikers-syfer van ontspannings-fietsryers. Fietsdiefstal, asook onvoldoende stedelike fietsbergingsfasiliteite, is twee van hierdie faktore. In stedelike gebiede met baie gevalle van fietsdiefstal, word fietse gewoonilik geteiken wat in fietsbergingsfasiliteite gelaat word. Dit kan 'n individu se houding teenoor stedelike fietsry negatief beïnvloed, en dit ook vir plaaslike owerhede moeilik maak om die baie voordele wat stedelike fietsry bring, te kan geniet. Hierdie stel `n straat-vaste slim-fiets-bergingsfasiliteit voor, wat dit moonlik maak om ` n fiets te beveilig en dus ook poog om die negatiewe houding teenoor fietsry in stedelike areas te oorbrug. Om 'n suksesvolle en volhoubare oplossing te vind, is drie belanghebbende groepe oorweeg en hul vereistes en gedrag in gedagte gehou tydens die ontwikkeling van die oplossing. Hierdie sluit in onderhoude wat gevoer is met fietsdiewe om die metodes en motiewe wat betrokke is by stedelike fietsdiefstal te verstaan. Aktiewe fietsryers se behoeftes en houding teenoor 'n moontlike oplossing is ondersoek met vraelyste wat aan hulle gegee is, terwyl 'n plaaslike munisipaliteit en `n akademiese instansie wat betrokke sal wees by die moontlike implementering van die oplossing, se behoeftes en vereistes ook ondersoek was. Deur die relevante insigte wat verkry is vanuit die navorsingsaktiwiteite, in produkontwerpspesifikasies te verander, kon `n konseptuele oplossing gevind word wat dus as navorsingsmodel dien. Hierdie produkontwerpspesifikasies het as 'n kwantitatiewe sjabloon gedien tydens die ontwikkeling van die konseptuele oplossing. Die voorgestelde oplossing was opgedeel in vier funksionele oplossings-areas, wat afsonderlik, maar interafhanklik van mekaar ontwikkel is. Die eerste oplossings-area behels die ontwikkeling van 'n meganiese staalraam, wat 'n fiets beskerm deur sy wiele en raam fisies te sluit deur die gebruik van 'n nuut ontwikkelde sluitmetode. Hierdie raam beskerm die kritiese komponente van die fiets teen die gereedskap en metodes wat die meeste gebruik word vir fietsdiefstal, en dit is gevind dat die raam ‘n fiets beter as bestaande beveiligingsmeganismes beskerm. Wanneer `n staalsaag egter gebruik is, het die meganisme slegs 71% van die vereiste beskerming gebied. Die tweede area behels die ontwikkeling van 'n sensor-stelsel wat enige steuring wat op die fiets uitgeoefen word, in ‘n digitale, tyd-diskrete sein verander. Die sein word dan verwerk deur 'n seinverwerkingsalgoritme, wat so ontwikkel is dat dit pogings van diefstal op die fiets kan identifiseer. Die sensor-stelsel het 'n vals-negatiewe koers van 8%, 'n syn opsporings-tydperk van 8,6 sekondes, en 'n vals-positiewe koers van 15%. Die derde area behels die ontwikkeling van 'n sluitmeganisme wat die meganiese-raam se beveiliging in 1.4 sekondes kan koppel, op 'n manier wat universeel toeganklik is vir verskillende gebruikers, sonder dat hulle 'n fisiese metode van toegang benodig. Die slot het 'n sluitingsbetroubaarheid van 96%. Die vierde area behels die ontwikkeling en implementeering van stelselelemente wat verantwoordelik is vir die stelsel se integrasie en algemene beheer, insluitend 'n stelselstaatmasjien, gebruikerskoppelvlak, wolkplatform en kommunikasievermoëns, met gepaardgaande kommunikasieprotokol vir die verskillende stelselelemente. Die resulterende oplossing se prestasie is gemeet deur vyf toetse wat op verskillende areas van die oplossing gemik was. Die algehele prestasie van die model blyk bevredigend, en dit voldoen aan die meerderheid van die aanvanklike vereistes en spesifikasies, en sodoende ook aan die probleemstelling wat relevant is vir hierdie navorsing