PT: It took us a while to get bikeshare in Vancouver. But once Mobi docking stations started to appear, the adoption seemed immediate. I thought it would take a good season before Vancouverites figured out how to use the system and for it to reach critical mass.
Not at all, it appears. Indeed, I’ve even heard that Mobi has been one of the most successful launches in the urban bikeshare experience.
But got no data. Anyone out there (asking you, Mobi) whether that impression is backed by the facts.
I was skeptical initially about the use of public funds for this. But I have now used it several times and become a member. It is a great enhancement for Vancouver. It works like a charm. The bike is robust, easy to use and drop off stations easy to find. I’d wish they expand more along the west, east and south side of Vancouver all the way including UBC and eventually northshore and Richmond.
China has fast (or even faster) bike share pickup. See here http://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2016/09/26/didi-chuxing-invests-10m-in-chinese-bike-sharing-start-up-ofo or (a bit old) here http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1580363/china-sets-pace-bike-sharing
Good global overview and comps here http://journalistsresource.org/studies/environment/transportation/bikeshare-research-growth-user-demographics-health-societal-impacts
I think the difference between the Mobi launch and other cities is that the others were done a few years ago before much of the general public hadn heard of bike share. Now probably everyone has heard about it (thanks to controversies in New York and Montreal) and so they know it exists and have an idea at least of what it is.
While it’s not the best bike share technology out there, it still works good enough. The bikes are not bad either. The gears are enough for Vancouver. I have a few gripes about it but overall it’s designed well enough.
I’d be very curious to see numbers after the tourist season is over and the rainy season has begun.
In other cities the number of available bikes is reduced in winter and the bikes are given a major tune up.
Strange, I’ve found the Mobi bikes not to be well used at all. In and around Coal harbour, Gastown, and Crosstown the racks are almost always completely full of bikes and I’ve only seen a half dozen or so being ridden around. Hopefully the stats prove me wrong though, as I agree it’s a great piece added to our transportation infrastructure.
I imagine it’s normal from some stations tend to be where people go to and others where they tend to come from.
I didn’t find any historical stats on the mobi website but you can see from this live map that some have more than others.
https://mountainmath.ca/mobi#14/49.2771/-123.1234