Major bikeshare industry leaders agree to implement data standard by end of 2015

The North American Bikeshare Association, working with representatives from the largest bike manufacturers, owners and operators in North America, is happy to announce the adoption of the open data standard for bikeshare. The open data standards will make real-time data feeds publicly available online in a uniform format so that map and transportation based apps such as Google Maps, RideScout and Transit App can easily incorporate this data into their platforms.

The open data standard will improve transparency and public access to bikeshare information and allow end users to create integrated software and end user applications. Available data includes station locations, bike and dock availability, pricing information, etc.

“With more than fifty bikeshare systems launched in North America since 2010, bikeshare has quickly become an important part of our transportation ecosystem. Establishing an open data standard is an important step to making bikeshare ever more convenient and accessible to the public,” says NABSA representative MitchVars.

Under NABSA’s leadership, bikeshare industry leaders including 8D Technologies, PBSC Urban Solutions, Social Bicycles, BCycle, Smoove, and Motivate developed the General Bikeshare Feed Specification (GBFS) over the past year. All have agreed to implement the standard by the end of 2015.

“We’re excited by the emergence of GBFS as it will standardize our bikesharing integration process. But we're also pleased because it helps solidifies the importance of open data and the need to create common standards for all types of mobility services. We’re proud to announce that we’re the first app to use GBFS by integrating Social Bicycles in nine cities across North America,” says Jake Scion, Director of Strategy and Development for Transit App.

"Social Bicycles is excited to be an early adopter of the new specification and recently performed the first partner integration with Transit App. We look forward to working with more partners to expand access to bikeshare as a local mobility option,” says Ryan Rzepecki, CEO of Social Bicycles.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Mitch Vars, I.T Director, Nice Ride Minnesota, 612-788-7627, mvars@niceridemn.org

Nicole Freedman, President of NABSA, 206-552-4085, nicole.freedman@seattle.gov

More information here: http://us11.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8327d4c9221c755645cd5334f&id=bfc8d7b6f0&e=8897be32c3

INDIANAPOLIS - Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Inc. today announced another milestone for the Pacers Bikeshare program; 200,000 bike share trips have been taken since the program launched on April 22, 2014.  Over 100,000 bike share trips occurred in the past seven months, greatly surpassing the time it took to reach the first 100,000 trips earlier this year. 

“We reached our first 100,000 trips in about eleven months. Reaching that same milestone at a faster pace exhibits that Pacers Bikeshare is a viable, and popular, transportation option in our downtown,” said Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Inc. Executive Director, Kären Haley. “Both residents and visitors are using Pacers Bikeshare.  Our data shows that most people are riding bikeshare on the Cultural Trail, demonstrating the important link between connected and safe bicycle infrastructure and frequent bike share use.”

Pacers Bikeshare is accessible year round. The Cultural Trail is cleared of snow and ice making it easy and convenient to use bike share during the winter.

Pacers Bikeshare By the Numbers (data from 4/22/15 - 11/15/15)

Bikeshare Stations: 26

Bicycles: 251

Bike Share Trips - 201,069

Calories Burned - 17,202,209 (equivalent to 88,216 donuts)

Distance Travelled - 433,340 miles (equivalent to 17.4 times around Earth)

Carbon Offset - 410,317 lbs. (equivalent to 50 cars off the road)

Day Passes - 52,535

Annual Memberships - 2,608

INDIANAPOLIS - Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Inc. (ICT, Inc.) today announced that the organization is now incorporating bicycles to balance the Indiana Pacers Bikeshare program.  Operations team members will use the trailers, which hold three bikes each, to more efficiently move bikes between the twenty-six stations located along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene and Marilyn Glick.

“The bike trailers will significantly impact on our ability to manage the system more effectively” said Indianapolis Cultural Trail Executive Director, Kären Haley.  “Using bicycles to move bike share bikes allows our operations team to transport small quantities of bikes and access stations that may be difficult to get to when roads are closed, or there are special events.”

The bike trailers were custom designed and produced by Indianapolis Fabrications. Indianapolis Fabrications donated one of the bike trailers to the program. 

Pacers Bikeshare piloted a foot balancing program this summer when ICT, Inc. hosted 12 students from TeenWorks. The TeenWorks students worked in teams to move small numbers of bikes by foot in areas with the highest station density.

“The TeenWorks teams were able to balance bikes in the downtown core more efficiently then our typical balancing operations,” said Cultural Trail and Pacers Bikeshare Operations Manager, Jordan Kingdon.  “The two bike trailers will allow us to augment our typical practice of using our cargo van to transport large numbers of bikes at a time.  Our operations will be more sustainable.”

ICT, Inc. operates the Indiana Pacers Bikeshare Program 250 bikes and 26 stations, primarily located on or near the eight mile Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene and Marilyn Glick.  The bike share program, which reached 100,000 bike trips in less then a year, started in April 2014.  Annual memberships and additional information are available at pacersbikeshare.org. 

About: Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Inc. ensures that the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene and Marilyn Glick is a beautifully maintained, vibrant community asset connecting people and places in downtown Indianapolis.

Kären Haley

Executive Director
Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Inc.

email: khaley@indyculturaltrail.org
phone: 317-672-7627
web: www.indyculturaltrail.org and: www.pacersbikeshare.org

View photos of the ride on Joel's Instagram account here: https://instagram.com/butternutsquashsoup/

I live at Seventh and Sansom, a block from Washington Square. I often start at the station at 8th and Market. The stations at 10th and Chestnut, 9th and Arch, and 5th and Market are also close. I wouldn’t object to a station in Washington Square, but I don’t want to sound spoiled. I know most people don’t have stations this close.

I moved to Philadelphia from Wichita in March and have been looking for ways to get to know the city. I joined Indego in June and have been using it regularly ever since. I’m a big fan. I have a bike, but I like the convenience of the bike share program. It’s great for short trips. I don’t have to worry about bringing my bike up to my apartment or locking it up, and you guys take care of the maintenance. I’ve been using the Indego map a lot and thought visiting and photographing all the stations would be a fun project. I’m an Instagram novice, but I like the app and am rooting for a bike-friendly Philly.

The ride took about eight hours, a little longer than I thought. I was thinking, well, one minute per station would be 73 minutes, but I knew that wasn’t realistic. Five minutes per station would be about six hours. That would be possible. In the end, it took a little extra time because I had never been to most of the stations, and I took some time to explore. I’m excited to get back to the Clark Park farmers’ market for mushrooms.

I started about ten-thirty. I wrote out the route the day before. Start close to my apartment, ride out to West Philly, cross the Schuylkill at Spring Garden and get the Art Museum, head to North Philly, wrap around Fishtown, back to Logan Circle, then South Philly, and finish up with the Center City stations near my apartment. I knew where most of those stations were located, so I thought if I could get the first sixty, I know where the last ones are located. During the ride, I used the bike2go app to fine tune the route. And, at the end, I had to stop at my apartment to recharge my phone, which I was using as my camera. Then, I went back out and got the last five stations: 9th and Arch, 12th and Filbert, 6th and Race, 2nd and Market, and Independence Hall. I numbered the photos in the order I took them. I’m thinking maybe someone else can help me with a shorter route.

I would definitely do it again. The photos turned out to be kind of a fall Philly valentine. It was a nice day, and I like photos of street scenes, interesting public spaces, brightly colored leaves, murals, the skyline, and blue bikes.

Source: http://rideindego.tumblr.com/post/132560374388/faces-of-indego-meet-the-member-that-pedaled-to

Great Rides Bike Share is proud to announce its one hundred thousandth ride! The program, the first of its kind in North Dakota, provides bicycles at stations located throughout downtown Fargo and the North Dakota State University (NDSU) campuses for short station-to-station rentals. The system launched in mid-March with 101 bikes at 11 stations.

“Our first year overall ridership levels put us ahead of other successful and much larger bike share programs in communities such as Minneapolis, Denver, and Madison all of which had fewer rides their first season.,” said Cam Knutson, chair of the Great Rides Bike Share Board of Directors.

The program’s fast-moving success ties in to new technologies that include NDSU students. “To our knowledge, it is the first program in the nation to integrate a whole university alongside community users,” said Tom Smith, owner of Great Northern Bicycle Co. and steering committee member for the program. New card-reader technology allows NDSU students to use their student ID cards to check out bikes. Over 7,700 students have enrolled their cards for the program.

“Great Rides Bike Share has had awesome results since launching and I would rank the usage at the top for bike share systems here in the USA,” said Lee Jones, Director of Sales for BCycle, the Madison-based vendor that provides infrastructure for over two dozen bike sharing systems nationwide.

Future plans include continued growth of the program across the NDSU campuses and downtown Fargo, eventually extending across the river into sister city Moorhead, Minnesota.

“This program is another example of how our community can rally behind something and make it a much bigger success than anyone could ever have imagined,” said Mike Williams, Fargo City Commissioner and Great Rides Bike Share Board of Directors member.

“Current and future bike share operators are taking note of our success, particularly in the integration of student riders. We receive multiple calls each month inquiring about how we did it,” says Sara Watson Curry, Great Rides Director of Operations.

Coincident to the milestone, the program will expand two of the most popular stations to better accommodate riders. This week, technicians will double the number of docks at the Memorial Union Station and add several additional docks at High Rise Complex Station, both on NDSU main campus, to accommodate more bikes.

Each bike in the system, which receives regular inspection by professional mechanics, has been ridden an average of 1,000 times, said Watson Curry.

For more information: greatridesbikeshare.com; facbeook.com/GreatRidesBikeShare

Further questions, please contact:

Great Rides Bike Share is a program managed by Great Rides Fargo, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to building healthy individuals and communities by encouraging the use of bicycles for lifestyle, sport, and recreation. Great Rides Bike Share is the first technology driven bike share system in North Dakota.