Chicago bike sharing: Where is it now? and other conversations

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A woman rides a bike sharing bike in Seville, Spain. Women may be an exclusive target market for bike sharing in Chicago where, as a portion of trips to work, make up only 25%. Photo by Claudio Medina. 

We’re expecting a bike sharing announcement very soon, within 1-2 weeks. I thought it would have happened by now, as the City gave itself a deadline of the new year. I can only guess how this delay will affect the launch. Before the announcement comes, though, I wanted to discuss a few ideas and concerns. So this isn’t much of an update but more like, “Hey, bike sharing’s still a thing even though you last heard about it in October!”

What is bike sharing?

It’s a new transit system, using durable bicycles that have lights, a few speeds, quality brakes, and a cargo basket, taking you from where you are to anywhere in the network, just like the CTA. You pick up a bike from Station A and drop it off at Station B. You pay a small membership fee for a month or a year, and all trips under 30 minutes are free*.

“Unless you walk to work, there’s simply no cheaper way to go,” said Josh Stephens, 37, of Adams Morgan [in  Washington, D.C.]. “The cost savings have been ridiculous.” Washington Post

I’ve never used a bike share but this seems to be a common sentiment. The article from which that quote came discusses some of the drawbacks, but it’s not like they’re driving away customers. In fact, new customers and ridership on Capital Bikeshare keeps growing.

Selecting station locations

Since September 2011, there’ve been three Requests for Proposals (RFP) related to Chicago bike sharing; the first one was for a vendor to manufacture and install the bikes and stations; the second one is about station selection and public outreach, which Sam Schwartz Engineering will handle. (They are doing a decent job handling the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 currently.) The third RFP is for finding and managing marketing and sponsorship opportunities.

To analyze where stations can and should go, I am hoping that Sam Schwartz Engineering looks to the efforts in New York City (where its headquarters are). In this vein, I expect there to be an online crowdsourcing map like New York City’s bike share map (see screenshot below), to grab attention and generate a lot of interest and feedback. Along with a great “street team” going from neighborhood to neighborhood (which NYC exhibited how to do well – see photos from a demo day), an online crowdsourcing map is extremely easy way for the city to gather input from the public on where they would like to see bike sharing stations. The data will already be geocoded and can be easily integrated with any other analysis the planners have.

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A screenshot of the NYC bike sharing station selection map. 

Why is it so late?

We don’t know. The City has been in a private negotiation with a vendor (or two?) since the RFP re-issue in December and is keeping its lips sealed.

Kevin Zolkiewicz, a Grid Chicago contributor, asked on our Facebook page

I’m curious about the implementation zone. One report of boundaries that I read left out some fairly significant neighborhoods, including Edgewater, one of Chicago’s densest neighborhoods. I’m also curious how CDOT plans to beat New York to launch when we’re now into February and an operator hasn’t even been selected yet.

This “implementation zone”, as I understood it from the pre-proposal conference was just a guide for the proposer to help them develop their proposal costs. It’s not set in stone and bike sharing locations could appear outside the implementation zone based on (1) the planning process (2) outside sponsorships and station donation. The zone is defined as the lakefront on the east, Belmont on the north, Ashland on the west, and 35th Street as the south border.

Jared Kachelmayer asked on our Facebook page: “Who is the target user?” These are my ideas:

(1) People who don’t have bikes.

(2) People who use transit. This is the most important target market, I think, as bike sharing is a perfect companion to bus and train use – this group has the highest potential to take some trips  by bike share. Transportation planners often talk about “last mile” connectivity with transit: how to get transit customers from home to the station conveniently and safely. A combination of safe streets (still in progress) and worry-free bikes will be good, and could even increase transit ridership, or at the least make for shorter commutes (no more bus to train when you can bike to train!).

(3) People who have bikes, but do not maintain them or don’t want to maintain them. It’s a worry-free bike. Or they don’t want it to get stolen.

(4) Visitors. This may cut into the tourist-oriented bike rental business operated by several companies at lakefront parks. But it will mean that visitors with a week membership (and I presume one is available) can bike around town instead of and in addition to using transit. Think about this: A visitor buys an RFID-enabled transit card at O’Hare or Midway (think the Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus), takes the train into town, checks into a hotel, then takes a bike out to the museum, then from the museum to dinner, then dinner back to the hotel.

(5) This guy. Bill Walsh, a copy editor at the Washington Post, talks about his experience joining Capital Bikeshare. He says he’s used it on 302 out of 320 “commuting legs” to work since joining in April 2011. He mentions that his wife bought a membership as a charitable contribution to a good idea – I find this amusing, but probably not out of character for a lot of progressive transportation advocates and activists I know in Chicago.

And who won’t use it?

• People scared of cycling in Chicago. The pace of installing protected bike lanes where stations will be must pick up. That means continuing Jackson Boulevard to Halsted Street (which is the original plan but IDOT is blocking) and into the Loop (which will likely have the highest density of bike sharing stations). It also means adding more bike lanes in, to, and from the Loop. The Bike 2015 Plan Tracker tells of the progress of bike lanes in the Loop – there were supposed to be some by 2010.
• People without bank cards. See “Unbanked” below. I know people at CDOT are working on this. I look forward to hearing how they will address. This may take some time; I’m not expecting their strategies to be ready before launch.
• Taxi drivers. Might it take away business? Perhaps…

Who else is going to be a target user of a Chicago bike sharing system? And who won’t use it?

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D.C. residents play a Paperboy game on Capital Bikeshare bikes. Photo by Michael Jantzen.

Unbanked customers

This topic deserves its own article, but I wanted to get people thinking about it. I guess that a lot of Grid Chicago readers will already have bank cards, so it’s not an issue for you, but if, like me, you want the program to reach the largest population, this is something to consider. Read this article for more information: Bike sharing and the unbanked in Washington, D.C.