Cycling Cities — Going beyond bike share

At Qucit, we’ve been working to improve bike-sharing systems for the last 5 years. In the process, we wrote extensively on bike-share programs (from the different patterns of use in cities to the fairly recent growth in e-bikes schemes) but we thought with NABSA and the coming elections in France, it could be the perfect opportunity to go over cycling policies to support bike-share initiatives in cities (and to give a few kudos). Local elections will be held in France next March. And guess what? Bike infrastructures and cycling policies will be one of the hot topics.

Priorities are being shifted. Instead of the daily use of cars, more and more people start to choose bicycles, even to commute to work every day.

Tired of unfinishing traffic jams, the problems with finding a parking space, city-dwellers highly value their time and care about their health. As a result, bike-sharing grows. There are more sophisticated technologies such as e-bikes but also a shift in the polical agenda: employers are being pro-active by granting incentives for those who pedal and governments are elaborating laws and policies to develop cycling. There are many methods in encouraging cycling in cities. Bike-sharing is one of them.

A brief history of bike share:

Surprisingly enough, the history of bike-sharing began roughly 50 years ago. However, only now the modern generation witnesses the extreme boost and international spread of bike-sharing.

The first bike-share system was introduced in Amsterdam, in 1965. The program called “Witte Fietsen” (“White Bikes”) put white-coated bicycles in the streets available without any payment and control. Many of them were damaged or stolen and this brought the endeavor to a close.

Deferred by such failure, nobody risked to re-install bike-sharing until the 1990s, where some attempts started to emerge here and there (around ten worldwide).

Only the beginning of the new century saw an increase in the bike-sharing systems from 13 in 2004 to 1608 in 2018. Lately, the progress has been significant: from 2,3 million in 2016 the number of bicycles in bike-sharing systems skyrocketed to 18,2 million in 2018
Today, there are even bike-share schemes above the arctic circle! (meet the world’s smallest bike-share scheme)

As mentioned, bike share schemes are one of the many methods to encourage cycling at the city or metropolitan level. Let us see some of the innovations and policies that aim to improve bike ridership.

Comprehensive cycling infrastructure: build it and they will come

Having a shiny, cheap and reliable bike share scheme is surely not enough to ensure increased ridership. People who rent bikes want to ride them on safe and segregated infrastructures. As it does for car traffic, induced demand applies in cycling policies “Build it and they will come” they say.

Seville is the perfect example to illustrate this phenomenon. The Spanish city increased its share of total trips made by bicycle from 0 to 9%! Sure, they implemented a bike share scheme, Sevici, but they had to build a comprehensive network of bicycle lanes.

And they had to do it fast to fit within a political mandate. They needed space so they took about 5000 on-street parking spaces and the design of those newly built cycling lanes, segregated from the road and at the sidewalk level made it difficult to ‘go back to the old way’ for the next politician in office.

Bicycle parking policies:

For many cities, encouraging cycling must be linked with providing enough secured parking for the personal bicycles of the inhabitants. Bicycle theft makes many hesitate before buying a bike knowing that they don’t have a secured spot at home or at work to store it.

We all have heard of the many parking facilities in the Netherlands: the world’s biggest bicycle parking was completed a few weeks ago in Utrecht.

Other cities are improving their infrastructures. It is, however, a rather complex matter since many different actors have to be implicated: the city could provide public space such as on-street car parking spots but should also ensure that new buildings and neighborhood development incorporate parking spaces in their design — as they do for cars. For example, the new Seville Bicycle Plan includes parking facilities in neighborhood communities but also everywhere else: workplaces, schools, public transport stations.

Dublin rolled out a BikeBunkers scheme in 2014. These secured facilities help Dubliners park their bikes right outside their homes. It faced difficulties with the pricing of such infrastructures. Many argued it should cost less than a parking space

Intermodality — making the bicycle part of a transport network

Since cycling is a great first and last-mile solution, cities have to ensure intermodality in their policies. It is especially true for rail commuters who are at a reasonable cycling distance from their train station but still take their cars. Solutions can be to provide secured parking next to stations or allowing access to public transport with bicycles.

Bike share schemes are also powerful tools to support intermodality policies: large stations are usually placed near mobility hubs

The BiTiBi Project in Europe took place a few years ago. This three-year project, funded by the European Union, aimed at combining effectively bicycles and train by building safe bike facilities but also providing public bikes. Integrating payment was also one of the key elements to ensure seamless door-to-door mobility.

Teaching cycling — for the young (and not so young)

Another way of increasing future ridership is by making sure the young generations are well-equipped to cycle in cities. In Germany for example, it is mandatory to have a cycling test in the fourth grade. This test requires preparation and is a great way of teaching bike safety.

Some cities like Guadalajara in Mexico developed tuition-free cycling schools for everyone. These Biciescuela teach everyone the benefits of cycling and how to ride a bike in cities.

This quick overview of bike policies -besides bike share- show that there are many ways to improve ridership in our cities. Have you heard of other interesting actions implemented somewhere? Let us know!

Sources:

http://www.pastaproject.eu/fileadmin/editor-upload/sitecontent/Publications/documents/20171027-PASTA_Project_-_Brochure_-_V4.pdf
https://ecf.com/sites/ecf.com/files/European-Parliament-2010_Promotion-of-Cycling.pdf
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/05/07/six-secrets-from-the-planner-of-sevillas-lightning-bike-network/