NYC Bikeshare
 

I spent the week in NYC. I do that often enough, usually in midtown, and up to now I've always tended to stay in whatever hotel is closest to the conference, whether I liked the hotel (or its price) or not, due to the hassle of walking longer distances from hotel to conference.

This time, the NYC Bikeshare (Citibike) was in operation. I tell ya, its going to improve my trips substantially. I just walked two blocks to a bike station, took a bike, rode to the station nearest the conference, docked the bike, done.

Three blocks of walking instead of twenty. No waiting in noisy subway stations or paying $30 a day to sullen cabbies. I got to stay where I wanted to stay (close to Central Park so I could conveniently run in the park), and didn't have to pay $450/night for a closer hotel.

Manhattan seems a totally easy place to ride. There is lots of traffic but it moves slowly, drivers are used to looking out for pedestrians and cyclists and all manner of street obstructions, and it is flat.

I love it. I'm going to expense a $99/yr membership just to use it on my trips.

We're supposed to get a bikeshare system in Portland, sponsors pending. I'm looking forward to it.

I was in the city earlier this week. I was amazed how many of those bike shares were around. I really hope this takes off, we need fewer cars in the city.

What a great thing.

They're very popular in DC, too.

These schemes work fantastically in every city Ive been where they exist, for locals and visitors alike, for business visitors, for tourism. Its a win/win/win for everyone.

The only place Im aware of where such a scheme is floundering is my own city, where there is a compulsory bike helmet law which is killing patronage and if it weren't for Govt money, it would fallen over. Its funny- ive used bikeshare in many cities around the world and never, not once, where I live.

It's thriving in Paris, fairly new thing there.

Wait until some science group declare that it spreads STD's!

Then it will get really popular!!!

;)

I'm actually thinking about putting together my own "city bike". Step through frame, internal gear hub, twist shift, generator lights, full chain case, disc brakes, fat tires, full fenders with big flaps, upright riding position, folding wire panniers, loud horn, kickstand, 35+ lbs and comfortably slow and proud of it.

Would never survive without the city's subsidies. Rentals do-not-equal costs. Sorry folks.

"Who is paying for bike share in New York?
Bike share in New York City is funded by sponsorship agreements, and, once the system launches, revenues from users. Sponsorship and revenues will cover the entire equipment and operations cost of the system. NYC Bike Share is not receiving any taxpayer or federal-aid dollars to establish and run the bike share system. In fact, the City expects that the system will make money. The City and NYC Bike Share will split all profits."

"How much is the sponsorship worth, and how long is it for?
The sponsorship agreement between NYC Bike Share and Citi runs for five years. Citi’s contribution as the title sponsor is $41 million. MasterCard is sponsoring the payment systems, and will outfit the stations with advanced, contactless PayPass payment points. In addition to this hardware, MasterCard is contributing $6.5 million. Citi’s brand appears on all 10,000 bikes, 600 stations, membership keys and the NYC Bike Share website. MasterCard’s logo will appear on the station kiosks, and on printed receipts."

The deal provides 6,000 mobile billboards for Citicorp, hundreds of logos on stations, and the system is named "Citibike". In an ad market as expensive as Manhattan, is that worth $8MM/year to Citi? Maybe. Anyway, they are paying it. MasterCard is a $6.5MM sponsor as well and, imagine this, the stations do not take American Express.

They've sold 40,400 annual passes so far at $95/each, so that is $3.8MM in revenue. They are running roughly 2,000 24-hour passes and 100 7-day passes sold per day, at $9.95 and $25 respectively, or $22K/day so $0.6MM/month. How much revenue will they make for a full year? At very least, $7.4MM - that assumes they sell not a single additional annual pass this year, and that 24-hour and 7-day passes are sold for only six months of the year. Realistically, they will make considerably more than that - the system has been up and running for only a few weeks, after all.

So call it $8MM/yr from Citi, $1.3MM/yr from MasterCard, $7.4MM/yr from revenue, total of at very least $17MM/yr of income.

Will that pay the operating expenses? I haven't seen a budget for the system (surely one is out there online somewhere?) but we know it employs 200 people locally in NYC, mostly bike mechanics and the rebalancer guys who load bikes in vans and move them between stations, I think those are fairly low-wage jobs. Sure, there are IT guys and management too, but I'd think the bulk of the operating expense is that 200 employee number - so use it as a starting point for educated guesses.

NYC's system initially covers only Manhattan below 60th and closer parts of Brooklyn. That was the region where they thought the usage would be highest and the system most likely to be financially viable, without ongoing public funding. I think how it goes there will determine if the system ever gets extended to uptown or the other boroughs. I am not sure I see a need for the system to be everywhere in NYC, frankly.

Whether we get a bikeshare in Portland will depend on sponsorship and the ability to break even without public funding. Portland is bike-crazy but the local bike advocacy groups will want public funds spent on bike lanes, cycle paths, etc - infrastructure - not on a bikeshare system. As we're not a media market like NYC, I wonder if we'll get a $3MM sponsor to step up.

I came up with a WAG of $15MM/yr to run Citibike, based on 200 lower-paid employees and 30 higher-paid employees plus rebalancing vehicles and renting a central facility.

I then found this -

http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/resources/res_pdfs/csd-19/Background-Paper8-P.Midgley-Bicycle.pdf

Which says $1,700-2,000/operating cost per bike per year as a rule of thumb. About 6,000 bikes in Citibike, I think, so call it $12MM/yr. Ehh, it's New York, so figure higher.

I believe a major factor is how much rebalancing you have to do. If the city is hilly, people will use the bikes to go downhill but not uphill, so more employees will have to load bikes in vans and drive them to the uphill stations. Capitol Bikeshare says the majority of its operating costs is rebalancing. Manhattan is flat, so maybe that helps a bit.

Most, if not all of our transportation infrastructure requires subsidy in one form or another.

$99/yr for a $99 bike doesn't seem to make much sense to me. For $9.99 a day I can make senses of it. I had several problems using the new ride share system such as broken card readers (come on, its MasterCard + Citibank!) and a touch screen user interface that needs plenty of work.