California State University, Monterey Bay Digital Commons @ CSUMB Capstone Projects and Master's Theses Capstone Projects and Master's Theses 12-2016 Developing a Bike-Share Program for Salinas and CSUMB Brittany Whalen California State University, Monterey Bay Ryan Blackman California State University, Monterey Bay Monica Mata California State University, Monterey Bay Madi Hare California State University, Monterey Bay Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes_all Recommended Citation Whalen, Brittany; Blackman, Ryan; Mata, Monica; and Hare, Madi, "Developing a Bike-Share Program for Salinas and CSUMB" (2016). Capstone Projects and Master's Theses. 67. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes_all/67 This Capstone Project (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Capstone Projects and Master's Theses at Digital Commons @ CSUMB. It has been accepted for inclusion in Capstone Projects and Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ CSUMB. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Brittany Whalen Ryan Blackman Monica Mata Madi Hare Daniel Fernandez, PhD. ENSTU 471 Fall 2016 Developing a Bike-Share Program for Salinas and CSUMB Introduction Bike-share programs are alternate forms of transportation most commonly found on college campuses or in city centers. These programs allow citizens, visitors, students and others to check-out a bike from a self-serve station and take it from point A to point B. Bike-share programs have grown worldwide at an increasing rate within the past decade. Image 1 shows that in 2001 there were only four worldwide cities that adopted a bike-share program, but that number dramatically increased from the years 2002 to 2014, when there were eight-hundred and fifty-five worldwide cities with bike-share programs. Also shown are the five leading countries with the greatest number of bikes in their bike-sharing fleets, with the largest bike-sharing fleet being in China. As the popularity of bike-share programs have spread internationally, so has it’s popularity with college campuses, and even private businesses. Image 1: Bike-share programs recently became an increasing trend worldwide. Image from: https://www.statista.com/chart/3325/bike-sharing-systems-worldwide/ 2 Our goal for this semester in Sustainable City Year Program was to research and understand the intricacies of pre- and post bike-share implementations in both downtown and urban areas, as well as on college campuses so we could make recommendations to the city of Salinas and for California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). We also created two surveys, one for CSUMB and one for Salinas. These surveys allowed us to get a better understanding of what constituents and students know about bike-share programs as well as their interest in having one and their concerns they might have if one were to be implemented. Overall, we have two questions for our research: (1) could Salinas benefit from a bike-share program? And (2) would a bike-share program be beneficial for CSUMB’s expanding campus? Background Bike-share programs have evolved quite a lot since their creation in the 1960s. The first bike-share program was created by the Provo movement in Amsterdam in 1965. Provo’s “White Bicycle Plan” left 50 white-painted bikes out for public use, but unfortunately, bike theft and vandalism caused this program to be shut down within days. The “second generation” of bike-share programs sprouted in the 1990s with two prominent programs in Denmark and Copenhagen, known as “Vi Cykler Til Arbejde” (We Bike To Work) and “Bycyklen” (City Bike) respectively. While this next generation had more durable bicycles and could be rented using coin deposits, the anonymous nature of the system still resulted in thefts. In the modern “third generation” era of bike-sharing, improvements such as on-board computers (likely for GPS), electronic locks on bike racks, mobile phone payment, and smart card/magnetic stripe cards such as credit cards have greatly improved the system and increased the security of the business. The bike-share is not a stagnant system however, when looking at business and technology, we must look at future innovations to the system. Currently, improvements to bike-shares for the “fourth generation” include additions such as changing how stations are powered, adding pedal assistance, and improving how stations are installed (DeMario 2009). While expert opinions differ on which innovations to bike-shares will have the biggest impact, some of these innovations are already in use. In Oregon, bikes can be left away from docking stations at only a slightly higher charge. Other riders can return those bikes to stations to receive credits for future use. Alabama currently offers “ebikes” with electric motors to assist in pedaling. In downtown Los Angeles, METRO allows customers to access its bike network using their public transit cards. Portland partnered with Nike to reduce costs to the city by adding the ‘swoosh’ logo to the bikes, exchanging lower prices for more promotion due to brand recognition. Each of these currently in-use innovations increases the program’s accessibility, not only drawing in 3 more business for the bike-share, but opening up the community for more people to access (McFarland 2016a). A number of bike-share programs have already made their name in society, like Zagster. In an interview with Zagster’s fleet manager, Jeremy Jo, he stated that operating a fleet can be a lot of work; making sure there are always available bikes, as well as coordinating everything from maintenance, rebalancing, replacements, and winterization/storage for every bike. Unlike the average bike which only needs servicing a couple times a year depending on use, bike-share bikes might have 15 or more riders in any given day, meaning they need roughly 5 times more servicing and attention. Another problem with managing the bike-share fleet is that communities tend to underestimate the number of cycles needed for a successful bike-share. Having too few bikes requires more time spent distributing bikes and each individual bike requiring more maintenance to keep in working order. Yet another issue with management is that while many people know how to ride a bike, they are inexperienced with handling a bike ​ ​ in an urban environment. By this, Jeremy means that riders are often inexperienced in how to ride on the road, and when and where to lock their bikes up. Ensuring their customers know how to handle the bikes is a big part of managing the operation (The Share 2015). Another management issue that arises would be how the bikes are to be redistributed based off of demand. One of the largest bike-share operations today is Vélib’ in Paris which has 20,600 bicycles and 1,451 bike stations throughout the city center, redistributes their bikes using trucks that are powered by natural gas. They also incentivize riders to return their bikes to stations that are not full by offering them fifteen minutes of free riding time (Shaheen et al. 2011). In January of 2017, the car-sharing service Zipcar will begin a bike-share partnership with Zagster, called Zipbike. As of September 2016, Zagster manages bike-shares on over 25 colleges, though 15 more programs are planned for 2017 through the Zipbike partnership. While Zagster currently charges $150 per bicycle each month, their chief executive, Timothy Ericsson, announced that the partnership with Zipcar would reduce program costs by 90%, making it more affordable for college students. Other recent partnerships have allowed bike-share programs to expand, such as Ford sponsoring San Francisco’s bike-share, allowing enough financing to multiply the number of the city’s bikes 10-fold (McFarland 2016b). Depending on the programs, the cost to use a bike-share varies. For example, ‘Capital Bikeshare’ in Washington, DC, is under $100 for one year’s membership, and free usage for bike rides under 30 minutes, and scaling prices dependent on trip length. (Capital Bikeshare 2016) For ‘CoGo Bike Share’ in Columbus, Ohio, one year’s membership costs $75 allowing unlimited 30 minute rides, and $3 for each additional half-hour on the trip. (CoGo Bike Share 2016) The more local ‘Bay Area Bike Share’ in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Jose, California charges $88 for one 4 year’s membership with unlimited 30 minute rides, with small fees for each additional half-hour. While the price of the ‘Bay Area Bike Share’ may be higher, the program covers multiple cities, allowing for more customer accessibility. (Bay Area Bike Share 2016) The bike-share ‘Zagster’ offers programs to individual businesses, properties, and schools with varying prices per organization. For CSU East Bay in Hayward, Zagster’s one time fee of $15 allows students, staff, and faculty unlimited trips under 3 hours. (Zagster 2016a) For Santa Clara University, Zagster’s one time fee of $35 allows students, staff, and faculty unlimited trips under 2 hours (Zagster 2016b). Environmental and Social Impacts Since bike-share programs are fairly new, there are impacts arising that are both positive and negative. Two prevalent positive impacts of bike-share programs would be that (1) they offset carbon emissions from cars and (2) they attract more people to local businesses ultimately creating a stronger economy. In 2015, Citi Bike of San Antonio found that the number of bike trips in a year offset 1,297,902 lbs. of carbon emissions (Socha 2015). And a 2010 study in the state of Wisconsin found that bike-share programs contributed $924 million to the state's economy (Flusche 2012). In addition to positive economic and environmental impacts, there has also been several positive social impacts. One study focusing on the impact of bike-share programs was conducted by the Mineta Transportation Institute, analyzing the Bay Area Bike Share system (BABS), in San Francisco Bay Area.