What kind of urban culture is needed for a bike sharing system to win people’s hearts in the US? - Meetup Summary
The 7th edition of our meetup series was held on 24 October 2024. Read on to find out what our participants had to say!
To introduce the meetup, Mathilde, Public Affairs Officer at Qucit, presented Qucit's mission: to make cities more pleasant, sustainable and efficient. Qucit develops Qucit Bike: logistics optimisation software designed for operators of bike share systems to reduce their carbon footprint in their daily tasks.
Qucit's mission requires us to meet with cities and their operators to understand current market trends and the resulting needs.
At this meetup, we talked about equity, accessibility and inclusion. Speaking of inclusion, one of Qucit's missions is to ensure that shared bike stations on the outskirts of city centers always have bikes available for their users. This is the case with VeloAntwerpen, which uses Qucit Bike to make its system even more equitable.
Let's turn our attention to the issue of inclusion with a quick introduction to cycling culture.
Cycling has grown in popularity over the years for a number of reasons. First of all, cycling is an environmentally friendly means of transport that significantly reduces carbon emissions in urban areas, and is perfectly suited to the environmental concerns of our century. It is also a means of transport recognised for its health benefits. Cycling reduces obesity rates and improves cardiovascular health.
Cycling is also a sport and a leisure activity. Many famous sporting events, such as the Tour de France, are a source of inspiration for amateur cyclists and do much to integrate cycling into cultural practices. But none of this would be possible without urban development and infrastructure. As you read this, a number of towns and cities are currently working on setting up dedicated cycling infrastructure (cycle paths, cycle parking spaces and even bike-sharing schemes).
Following this rise in popularity, it has been observed that in the United States, the majority of cyclists (whether they use their own bike or a shared bike) are generally white men aged between 20 and 50, making their journeys with a backpack on their shoulders and without a helmet.
This leads us to ask:
How can we extend cycling to as many people as possible, and include communities other than those already cycling? What kind of urban culture is needed to win people’s hearts in the United States?
To answer these questions, this meetup brought together speakers from a variety of organizations:
Kim Lucas, Director of the Mobility Department of Pittsburgh
Nate Bowman-Johnston, General Manager of the Indego Bike Share, bike sharing system of Philadelphia
Anna Tang, Bicycle Friendly America Specialist, from the League of American Bicyclists
What do they have in common? They want to make bike-sharing even more accessible to as many people as possible!
The role of cities in integrating bike-sharing into the daily lives of their residents.
Speaker: Kim Lucas, Director of Mobility for the City of Pittsburgh.
Kim oversees transportation investments and policies that support accessible mobility for Pittsburghers. Key initiatives of the Mobility Department currently include the design and implementation of a comprehensive network that serves all modes of transportation and encourages more sustainable travel choices, including bike sharing.
Since 1980, the City of Pittsburgh's cycling infrastructure has continued to grow and improve to simplify the daily lives of its cyclists. In less than 40 years, from 1980 to 2019, the city has gone from 3 unmarked and unprotected bike lanes to 94 bike lanes.
In 2020, the City of Pittsburgh continued its work, launching a master plan with the aim of achieving a zero fatality rate during its residents' daily commutes, increasing the number of last-mile trips made on foot or by bike, and reducing each household's spending on housing and mobility to no more than 45% of their total budget.
As a result, between 2019 and 2022, the city has observed a 27% increase in the number of journeys made by bike. To ensure sustainable growth, the city has continued to invest in infrastructure. From 2019 to 2023, 457 new bicycle racks have been installed and 29 new bike lanes built. To ensure equity in the implementation of these projects, the city has ensured that 14% of these new installations are located in J40 zones (disadvantaged neighborhoods). The population residing in J40 zones represents 11% of Pittsburgh's population, or 33,750 inhabitants served by these new bicycle infrastructures.
Bike sharing is a major factor in diversifying modes of transport and increasing the modal share of cycling in Pittsburgh. That's why the city is working jointly with its operator, POGOH. The roles of the city and its operator are detailed below:
« Electric bikes have profoundly changed the number and type of journeys that can replace a car journey. Electric bikes attract a wider range of ages, physical and sporting conditions. »
That's part of the reason why the POGOH bike-sharing system has been so successful: 400,000 rides completed in 2024 (and the year's not over yet!), double the 2023 record of 211,000 rides. Other factors in its success were the expansion of the POGOH network in 2023 and investment in a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh to provide unlimited 30-minute rides for its students.
Finally, Kim concluded her speech by stressing the importance of safety when cycling, including wearing a helmet and respecting the rules of sharing the road.
Initiatives that need to be put in place to ensure the fairness of a bike share system.
Speaker: Nate Bowman-Johnston, General Manager of Indego Bike Share, the City of Philadelphia's bike share system.
Nate leads the logistics operations teams at Bicycle Transit System in Philadelphia, with a strong commitment to more equity and inclusion in bike sharing. Under Nate's leadership, Bicycle Transit System operates Indego Bike Share in Philadelphia which, from its inception, has focused on three pillars: increasing mobility for Philadelphians, financial viability and equitable access to shared bikes. Indego is an innovative project and a national leader in promoting equity in bike-share programs across the United States.
Launched in 2015, Indego Bike Share now boasts 2,500 bikes (mechanical and electric) and 250 stations. Since its launch, the system has already logged 7.9M journeys, including 1 million in 2024 (and once again, the year hasn't yet touched its end)!
To make the system fairer, Bicycle Transit System has introduced a reduced fare program. Those eligible for PA Access/SNAP receive a significant discount. This is the country's first-ever discounted fare program, started in 2015, and serves as a model for many other systems. The program has so far proved a great success, accounting for 16% of pass holders and 15% of trips on the bike share system, with ridership 2 to 3 times higher than that of normal fare pass holders.
Indego Bike share reduced fare programme
« We will soon increase our fleet to 3,750 bikes and 375 stations, while continuing to prioritize the installation of stations within BIPOC communities. »
BIPOC : Black, Indigenous and People Of Color
With the aim of making cycling ever more accessible, Indego Bike share also offers Philadelphia residents free learn to ride classes, organized by staff from the city's Bicycle Coalition staff. To ensure cyclists' safety, they also provide free helmets during the classes. These courses, like many other initiatives, are part of the city's 5-year Equity Plan.
Dear readers, if you are interested in learning more about the equity initiatives of the Indego Bike Share system, we invite you to read this document: https://www.phila.gov/media/20230222174356/Indego-Equity-Plan-2023.pdf
How has cycling become more accessible to American citizens in the United States?
The League of American Bicyclists (Ligue des Cyclistes Américains) has been around since 1880 and represents the voice of cyclists to create safer roads, stronger communities and a bike-friendly America for all. Anna has worked for the League since 2022, leading workshops on local bicycle advocacy and the Bicycle Friendly Community strategy.
First, to better understand cycling culture in the U.S., it's good to know that 8% of the population doesn't have access to a car. So we have to find other means of transportation to get around. These means are many and varied, and can include walking, cycling, bus, car-sharing, metro, streetcar, train or boat.
Bike-sharing is one of these means of transport that meets most of the needs of today's urban populations, as it enables rapid, independent travel, is easy to use, inexpensive and predictable (users know they can count on this option to complete a journey).
Of course, for this option to continue to grow in popularity, it is necessary to obtain the support of the government in place and of the communities concerned (shared bike users). And this, taking into account the already existing transport network (bus, metro, etc...).
Map changes in bike commuting
On a national level, in the United States, it has been observed that American users are more willing to cycle (publicly and/or privately) if the infrastructure in place allows them to do so safely.
« The feeling of identification also plays a key role in the development of bicycle use. Indeed, the population will also be encouraged to do so if people from their own community (whether Afro-Americans, Latinos, Asians or whites) are riding. »
The feeling of ownership is just as important. Informing and encouraging the population to use bike sharing for everyday journeys promotes a general awareness of the public good. This process similarly involves meeting and accompanying users to better understand their needs and adapt the system accordingly.
Today, in the United States, many communities are involved in setting up and diversifying a variety of bike-sharing systems, with the aim of reaching a greater number of people. These include systems operated by operators (such as Indego), as well as micro bike-sharing systems within universities (where bikes are taken back, repaired and made available to students for hire), bookshops and "adapted" bike-sharing systems.
Such is the case of the "Adaptive POGOH" system within the city of Pittsburgh. Launched in May 2024, this new system creates bike access for all, and includes a fleet of seven bikes to suit a variety of cyclists (tandem bike, cargo bike, side-by-side tricycle, recumbent bike). The adaptive POGOH thus includes families, the elderly and the disabled in cycling.
Adaptative POGOH Pittsburgh
Questions
During our webinar, a number of questions were raised and our speakers gladly answered them:
What would be the next steps in the years to come for the city of Pittsburgh ? And what would be the greatest challenges for the city ?
Kim : In terms of bike infrastructures, a lot of the low hanging fruit projects are the ones that are easier to implement because they might have physical space to put in something without taking away too much money for other things.
It is going to be more difficult as we try to get into those places that have been just more difficult because they are more constrained. However, we are going to continue to build out our complete network. There’s also a vision for bike sharing where every person who lives in the city of Pittsburgh could get to a bike share station within 5 minutes of walking. This is a goal we have heard of from our bike share system (Bike Share Pittsburgh : Pogoh). So, we are still trying to figure out how to invest in them to make that goal reality.
Beyond the white American community, which other demographic groups have shown an increasing interest in using bicycles ?
Nate : We have seen our general ridership and the diversity of our ridership grow. A big part of that is due to our expansion, getting bike stations into communities where people live and the reduced bike fare programs creating access from a cross stand point. So, I think we are seeing a more diverse ridership now. Although, there are still a lot more people to be reached and barriers to break down.
We are going to be adding another 125/150 stations to the network over the next 2 years. So we will continue to see the diversity of our ridership grow. One of the big things that we are talking about is bridging the gap with our reduced fare programs between the people with a low income and the bike share access. The barrier is real. This is what limits who can use bike share and the city. So, expanding the eligibility to our reduced fare bike share programs in a financially responsible and sustainable way will be one of our main focuses to reach even more people in the future.
Anna, do you have any other examples of existing bike sharing systems outside of the ones previously mentioned?
Anna : There are just so many. The ones that stand out the most for me are the ones that are doing the equitable engagement, and there is one in particular that is doing an incredible equity work : San José, California.
In San José, they are doing an amazing equitable outreach and engagement that translates into the rest of the work that the communities are doing by reaching all types of people and even going above and beyond to engage children and other different groups of people that the majority of communities don’t necessarily think about. So, that trickles into their bike share system and how that gets implemented.
Nate, could you expand on your helmet program?
Nate : We provide helmets to people who complete our classes and educational programs. It's used as a kind of incentive.
Nate, who does pay for the reduced fare program? How is it integrated in the contract between the city and the operator?
Nate : Our reduced fare program is baked into our contract with the city. We don't receive any public funding from the city, so the program is funded through a combination of user revenue, sponsorship dollars, and advertising revenue. this speaks to my point about needing to have a sustainable business model to support equity
US bike share systems focus a lot on BIPOC communities. Do you have any programs on White/American communities too? Or do you consider them as too difficult to attract as a bike share cyclist regarding their car culture, and BIPOC are easier to attract to cycling because it is more difficult for them to access a car?
Kim : It is a really interesting question because, coming from the US, we don’t really hear that question much. So, part of the reason that Capital Bike Share wanted to focus on an equitable approach to pricing and station placement back in the days because our membership demographics were not representative of the communities we were serving. So, disproportionately you see white American communities adopting bike share and being able to use it for their trips because of how cities have developed. It can be expensive to live in a location that is accessible to places you can reasonably bike to. So to create greater access, cities wanted to focus on BIPOC communities.
However there are still a lot of folks in white American and in other communities that haven’t tried bike sharing yet.
The interesting thing for most/all of the bike sharing systems is that for people that haven’t been on a bike in 20 years and now see a bike sharing system in their city, it makes them try biking. Having programs that start by recreational trips for people that would not see themselves as commuter cyclists or ride a bike to go grocery shopping, enables them to get comfortable using a bike before using it elsewhere.
So, the overall programs are designed to get people on bikes, all people on bikes. But the reason you’ve heard us talking about focusing on BIPOC communities is because they have not been using the bike share systems the way they would have, if it had been implemented differently.
What is the biggest barrier to implementing cargo bikes to bike share fleets? I am curious because cargo bikes have grown incredibly popular in Europe, especially as car replacement vehicles.
Kim : One of the barriers to implementing cargo bikes might be the infrastructure. If there was one off the shelf product for a bike share docking stations compatible for cargo bikes, you could see more of them. Part of the design that goes into a bike sharing bike is that it needs to be something that is able to live outside, in most cities, 24/7, 365 days a year, and needs to withstand lots of different types of weather and fit a wide range of people as there’s typically one model existing outhere. We’d love to see the expansion of cargo bikes, even though there would be a little bit of physical barrier with the footprint as they tend to be longer. In some places where you could have a station, first you might need to adjust the sidewalk or the size of the bike lanes. These are the main physical challenges that would need to be medicated. As of today, there is not a product that people could buy and that would be able to be used in a bike sharing context.
Anna : A lot of the cargo bike share systems that have been seen are usually non-profit systems (for example : Indego or Pogoh bike share systems, or systems at Universities or libraries) where it could be rented for an hour and then stored inside a dedicated space for the fleet. It is an untraditional bike share system that doesn’t have to dock or has issues that go around it.
Our thanks once again to our speakers, Kim Lucas, Nate Bowman-Johnston and Anna Tang, for the quality of their discussions.
See you soon for another webinar on bike sharing!