Advocacy & Safety - London turns a profit, expands.

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA

View Full Version : London turns a profit, expands.

closetbiker
11-18-10, 10:30 AM
I was pleased personally witness the success of London's publicly shared bicycle system this past week.

Although the bikes weren't nearly as prevent as Paris' Velibs on the roads I was on while in the west end, they stood out.

Just before I went over, I read that a profit has already been projected and expansion was coming

London bike hire scheme on road to be only public transport system in profit (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/oct/13/london-bike-hire-profit)

Meanwhile down under, Auckland's system is folding

Nextbike has withdrawn its 170 hire bikes - on which the first 30 minutes of riding was free - after failing to cover costs from advertising. (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10687659)

SCROUDS
11-18-10, 02:58 PM
That's great news.

I still think its sad that the government can spend billions of dollars (and pounds) in highway building and repair and be considered "successful" but mass transit and bike share initiatives need to turn a profit to be considered successful. Either way kudos to london and sad to see auckland's set up fold. Seems that one was a private company?
closetbiker
11-18-10, 03:17 PM
Aucklands' Nextbike was a public service funded by advertising. It was small scale and very few people used them. I believe there were fewer than 200 bikes available to use.

In this (http://aucklandcyclechic.blogspot.com/2010/01/auckland-bike-share.html) blog, the author says he has seen only 3 people use the system.

It was also the only publicly shared bicycle system in the world to provide helmets with each bike for its users. NZ has an all-ages MHL as does Australia. Melbourne's PSB system does not provide helmets, it is the riders responsibility to provide their own.

myrridin
11-18-10, 03:27 PM
The thread title is misleading. According the article the program is expected to "... cover operating costs within three years and will then go on to meet implementation costs." In other words it is not currently profitable.

Be a nice example if it does; however, I have a strong distrust of such predictions... I'd much rather they wait and crow over actually achieving such a goal.