The Minnesota system uses the same bikes and kiosks/stations as Bixi does. London has a similar system. The same iPhone app that shows station locations and status works for all of them.

This scheme would be way too expensive for me. I doubt that I would ever be willing to use it.

I see it as, get exhausted and need to stop to rest. . . bam! $6 charge. Someone nicks the bike by any means, $1000 charge. Same with an accident, $1000 charge. It looks like one of those schemes where the profit is hidden in the unreasonable penalties.

What happen if the bike has a mechanical breakdown or flat? Do you have to roll it to the next station?

It's a non-profit operation. I don't think anyone is looking to make money on it. Unless your rest is for 90 minutes or more you won't see a $6.00 fee.

I honestly don't know how they'll handle damages. The bikes are built like tanks but you're responsible for them until you get to the next station. If you scratch the paint and own up to it, I don't know what they'd charge you if anything.

As far as a breakdown goes, they give you a 1-800 number to call. I don't know if that means they'd come get you but I'd hope at least they'd waive any trip fees you incur as a result and hopefully give you a coupon or something for free 24 hr pass. It looks like the intent is that you'd never be far from a station. While it may not be your ultimate destination, you can roll it to the nearest station and get another bike. There's a button you can push at the dock to indicate that the bike is damaged.

yeah..I know. I was just kidding...

the bike co-ops suck here, they just try to sell 30 year old Schwinns for $250 saying they're "vintage".

Non-profit is a bit of a misnomer. Non-profits can, and do, make a profit if they intend to continue as a going enterprise.

All that being said, as I stated, I would not be willing to make use of there services in my current financial situation (grad-student, one semester to MBA). At some point in the future might be willing to take the risk that these bikes represent; but, right now I just do not have the money to take the risk.

There is also the very real point that I am not the target market anyways. I already have several bicycles. Thus scheme requires me to ride from kiosk to kiosk exchanging bicycles as I go. Further, it precludes any stops. I can see this as being useful if I were walking from point A to point B, with a separation of about 1 to 7 miles, and I happened to know that there were kiosks near both locations. As stated, I would also have to be willing to part with, what is right now, a fair amount of money to use the bike.

I am sure that there are people that this works well for, it just isn't for me. Further, I think the people that can afford to use them would, in general, prefer to drive.

In my nearly 25 year career I've worked in both the for-profit and non-profit worlds. While some non-profits are hard to distinguish from for-profits as far as how their organizations operate, they are often very different animals. Some non-profits combine grant money with investments from an endowment to keep going. Others rely on donations. Many use combinations of the above while others rely mostly on fee for service like a traditional business. Some are intended to exist for a relatively short time. Believe me, if my goal in life was to make a lot of money, I would have stayed in the for-profit world.

I've been curious about NiceRideMN's business plan since I've seen the bikes show up. From what I've seen, the goal is to promote cycling as an alternative to other forms of transport. This is seen as providing benefits to the area and its population. I think it would be contrary to their goals to gouge subscribers with hidden fees. I don't know if they ever plan to cover operational costs through subscriber fees alone.

While I'm not positive who their target market is, I think it's a pretty good deal for students as long as the stations are in convenient locations. It's $45 a year if I remember right. You don't have yo store a bike anywhere and somebody else is responsible for maintenance. Many students lack a good place to keep a bike where it's not subject to vandalism, theft or just exposure to the elements. While the NiceRide bikes sit outside all the time too, they're separated enough that they aren't getting banged against each other like bikes in a crowded rack often are.

I don't know what at a minimum it would cost me annually to maintain a bike doing my own work, but I doubt that it's much less than $45. Since I'm usually upgrading something or another, I usually spend a lot more.

Biggest, Baddest Bike-Share in the World: Hangzhou China - video
 

http://www.streetfilms.org/category/bicycles/

The Biggest, Baddest Bike-Share in the World: Hangzhou China by Elizabeth Press on June 1, 2011. Video sourced from <http://www.streetfilms.org/category/bicycles/>.

The 50,000-bike system in Hangzhou, the southern Chinese city of almost 7 million people, blows all other bike-shares off the map.

I visited Hangzhou in Oct 2010, and vouch that this bixie scheme really gets used. Melbourne's bixie might begin to compete, if only they'd pull the plug on mandatory helmets!

We have these in Miami Beach but I have not yet checked them out. The program seems to be very popular with tourists riding from their hotel out to the beach or to get a bite to eat.

Thanks for the review.

I have rented the bikes in Montreal (Bixi) and they were great. I actually was quite impressed. We now have the same system here in Toronto and it seems to be a success. Vancouver is going to be a problem for the same reason as Melbourne, the dreaded helmet law. So I don't foresee a usable system in the near future unless the helmet law is reppealed for Vancouver. Also for Canadians, Ottawa has now bike sharing.

Though I have never used them, I have seen the ones in Paris, London and Brussels and it seems to be a success. Hope the trend continues.

Funny this thread should get revived the same day I decided to post my Bixi vs. road bike speed test.

I have a subscription to the system even though I commute with my own bike. I use it when i want to get somewhere downtown and don't want to worry about locking my bike up someplace.

Having a smart phone really helps make the system work better for you because it can tell you where the nearest kiosks are. The other day I didn't have my phone with me and I accidentally rode past the kiosk I had been looking for. It had been moved a block. This was a problem because riding to the next closest kiosk to where I was going (that I remembered) meant that I'd have to back track on foot quite a ways. In the end it would have been quicker for me to walk.

Station placement is the key to the success of these systems. There needs to be enough of them and they need to be near places where people want to go. Of course they're competing for space with sidewalk restaurants and parking.

On my speed trial I was motivated by more than just the desire to see how fast the bixi would go, I needed to get to the kiosk before my 30 minutes were up in order to avoid a charge. Right before I begin the timed part of the ride, my wife calls me and I spend about 8 minutes on the phone with her because she was having trouble starting the grill. Doh !

And of course the kiosk wasn't located right at my destination. It was a few blocks from there.

When I lived in paris, I fell in love with the velib system they have there...not only is it free but it has had the time to spread all over the city, making it a real viable alternative to trains and buses. I agree that station placement is the key...also keeping the bikes rotating since some spots will always have more traffic going to them.

I read articles when it first came out that people were dying/getting hit by cars because a lot of people who weren't adept at biking were riding them on weekends/after drinking. It's also important to check out the bike before you pick it up....

I found this website on Miami Beach's version of bike sharing. It even has a video explaining how it works.

http://www.decobike.com/index.php

Looks like there is no yearly pass available in Miami Beach, however. The best you can do is get a monthly pass for $15 or $25. Otherwise the pricing seems reasonable. The 'replacement' fee for the bikes is $675.

Here is the station map. They are literally all over Miami Beach:
http://www.decobike.com/map-location.php

And pricing:
http://www.decobike.com/pricing.php


This thread is encouraging me to give these bikes a try. I might just do so!

I think in places like Paris and Miami Beach the bikes would be really popular with tourists. I'm assuming that there were many bike rental places in Miami Beach already. How do they feel about these bikes?

I've noticed in popular recreational areas in Minneapolis that the stations are almost non-existent. I bet it's because the bike rental places put up a fuss.

I bet bike rental places are a little irked. However, usually bike shares are limited by some kind of initial sign up.

Using paris as an example again, you had to link the bike share to your subway fare card (called a "navigo" there) which is linked to an address in the city. This way, if you lose it, they'll send you a new one. So tourists must still rely on rentals while residents use the bike share system. It also creates accountability if you decide to steal or damage a bike, there's a 150 euro deposit if memory serves

Free? It isn't free.

Again, this is not true at all. You need a debit/credit card with a smart chip in it, and you can rent the bike by the day, it is 1 euro/day to use the system, or 3 euros for 7 days. Sure, americans can't use it because our cards don't have smart chips in them, but other tourists certainly can and do use the system. The deposit is still held on you debit/credit card.

I have been to Minneapolis and saw these things. I have also heard they are going to install 'repair stations' that act like vending machines that have repair parts people can buy if they don't have something they need at that moment. Seems like an idea, but I wouldn't call it a 'bike share', but more of a 'bike rental' system. The city owns them right? I guess it is a 'share' because the bikes are 'shared' with everyone willing to pay.

I have one question though, how do these bikes handle in the winter? They can get nasty, and I was wondering if they have people that either haul the bikes off to storage, or have people taking care of the stations to let people rent them if needed.

If you're a subscriber you're paying for the right to use them. It's not a rental in the traditional sense. You can use any of the bikes at any time as often as you like. When you lease or rent a bike, you can ride as much as you like during the relatively short rental period, but you can only use that bike.

The city doesn't own the bikes and though the system started in Minneapolis it's intended to expand into St. Paul and the suburbs. It's run by a non-profit organization.

The bikes are stored for the winter. They're on the streets from April into November. It would be cool if they were around all winter but the areas around the kiosks would have be cleared of snow which I think would be a major expense. The kiosk outside our building would be routinely getting plowed under. When the streets are dry, which in the winter is actually most of the time, they'd fine but they wouldn't be much fun to ride in any snow. Plus the salt and slush would degrade the components and add to the maintenance expenses.

Miami Beach does have bike rental places. They typically rent beach cruisers with coaster brakes. I can imagine that the rental shops are not particularly fond of the new 'city bike stations' as they potentially will cut into their business. The problem with bike rental shops is that you still have to take the bike back to the same place you rented it from, so it's not as convenient for getting around. It's more of a 'take a joy ride' type of thing and then you return the bike. It's not practical for getting from the beach to your hotel or to the restaurants.

The tourists often pay for taxis rides even to travel a mile or two, so I imagine this should be quite popular given the costs. When I was a tourist in Vegas I would have loved these bike share stations. Taxi rides were pretty expensive.

I actually think this 'bike station' thing also has a shot of gaining popularity with locals. Locals are not going to pay $25 an hour for a bike rental, but a quick run down to the grocery store or beach sounds more reasonable for a $15 unlimited monthly pass. I read on the FAQ that employers can sign up and the entire cost of the service could be covered through a federal program. Now that sounds promising. If there is no cost to employers, I can see them encouraging their people to bike to work, especially in Miami Beach where the traffic is just horrendous at times.

One of the reasons I asked is because I was in Sanibel Island last year. Bikes were a very popular form of transportation. The bike rental places would deliver to your hotel/condo and you could rent the bikes for multiple days at a shot (I don't remember what it cost).

I'd think they'd have a horrible time trying to get a bike share system going there even though it would be really useful. I didn't know if Miami Beach was similar.

Madison, WI has a BCycle operation that just started this Summer. I don't work or get downtown much so I haven't tried it out yet. From their website it looks pretty ambitious.... http://madison.bcycle.com/

Enjoy!

It never works out, however.