Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Transit Georgia Tech, meet viaCycle, your new bike-sharing program
Posted by George Weidman on Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 9:01 AM
The European practice of short-term bike rental is set to arrive at Georgia Tech — most likely this fall — in the form of viaCycle.
Here's how it works: Georgia Tech students, faculty and staff can search for a viaCycle bike either on the Web or with their eyes. They then check the bike out to themselves with a text message or phone call. An electronic cable lock mounted on the bicycle, which is turned on and off through phone texts, secures the bike in place for new customers. It can also be locked and unlocked while a customer pedals around town running errands. GPS tracking allows customers to find and check out a bike where the last user locked it up. The viaCycle technology is also intended to curb theft.
Kyle Azevedo and Siddharth Doshi, the company's founders, whipped up the company and its technology in Georgia Tech's Sustainable Design and Manufacturing lab as a way to start bike sharing in Atlanta without the pricey infrastructure that's helped tank similar programs in other cities. So far, they've managed to chug along smoothly with just $50,000 in grant money.
ViaCycle's expected to launch its "beta testing" period on Tech's campus in the next few months. Doshi said last summer that a pre-paid payment structure would be ideal after the testing phase. Early adopters would enjoy the first few months free. Intown Bicycles will provide maintenance. According to the viaCycle blog, staffers last week were putting the final touches on the "beta bikes." (Some models are expected to be available during Tech's Bike Week, which lasts until Friday. Here's a list of the scheduled events.)
While many large-scale citywide bike share programs fizzled out in the 90s (never forget Portland's Yellow Bike Project), the concept has enjoyed a more successful resurgence in the past five years as more smaller-scale, fee-based models arrived. Georgia State University also offers free at-the-desk bike rentals through Touch the Earth.
We've heard whispers that viaCycle technology, if successful, could be expanded to include the rest of the city. We'll keep our ears open. Let us know if you hear more details.
This post has been altered to correct an error about viaCycle's technology at Emory. See comment below.
Comments (8)
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The article says, "And viaCycle's technology has been used with Emory University's bike-share program".
Is this true? If so, I'm unaware of it, and I've used the Emory bikes before. There's nothing about the text locking and unlocking on the Emory link provided above. And that same page still says that Emory bikes must be returned to their starting locations -- which I think is a departure from the much more flexible system at Georgia Tech.
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JoeInAtlanta,
I'll look into that. According to news releases and reports from last year, several bikes with viaCycle technology were planned to be used on Emory's campus this summer.
Hi JoeInAtlanta,
You're absolutely correct - viaCycle has not been rolled out at Emory. Bike Emory and Jamie Smith were instrumental in our early stages and helped with a lot of testing and feedback. Our original goal was to provide them with 10 viaCycle bikes once the system was production-ready. However, recently it seems they've been moving away from bikesharing a bit. From what we understand, they want to transition their program to more of a long-term rental model.
We'd still love to provide public bikes there, and we actually have most of the hardware sitting here ready to go. It likely depends on what Emory's long-term plans are and whether we can find a funding arrangement that suits everyone. If you'd like to see the technology in action, let them know - the community plays a huge role in getting these systems off the ground.
Thanks for the comment and hope to see you on a viaCycle someday!
This is really great. I'm looking forward to trying out the system. Here are just a couple things I hope ViaCycle will consider:
1 - MARTA access. It'd add a huge amount of utility to the system if the bikes could be used to get to/from the North Avenue and/or the Midtown MARTA stations. It'd probably take some logistical work to make sure there were enough bikes at the stations in the mornings, and that too many didn't build up inside during the evenings. But that would make it possible for many people to leave their personal bikes at home and not have to deal with carrying bikes on the train. It might also introduce a lot more people to bike commuting. I know of many GT employees that either walk or take the trolley to/from the stations, and many of them would likely take advantage of bikes if they were available.
2 Chargeable checkout time should be limited to riding time. I wasn't clear if this was actually the case, but if a person were to ride from the center of campus up to Tech Square for lunch, hopefully they won't be charged for checkout time while they eat. Of course, this would require enough bikes so that while the first person is eating lunch, a second could check out the bike, but there would still be another bike available when the first person is done with lunch.
What has made bike sharing successful in other cities are policies to encourage high turnover (most are free for the first 30 minutes), and a high density of checkout stations and bikes. Given that your system doesn't require stations, it has the potential to be even more useful than other systems. But it's all in the execution. Good luck, and thanks for your efforts in getting this started. I'm hoping I get picked for the beta testing!
Now if they could only come up with some cool technology to keep all the cars of the ATL from mowing us down if we were foolish enough to bike at all in this town...
Hi Midtown Cubicle Dweller,
We definitely hear you on MARTA access. One of our top priorities once we are adequately serving Tech's main campus is to provide access to existing ATL transit.
As for chargeable usage time, we want to set up enough stations so that people have lots of options to check the bike back into the system. However, if they do lock it up somewhere outside the network, it will remain in their name - this is to encourage quick turnover of the bikes, as you mention. It still gives you more flexibility over a kiosk system, where you don't even have the option of taking a quick trip to the store or lunch if there's no station there. Plus, we're working hard to keep rates reasonable once we implement a fee structure.
Thanks for your thoughts and kind words - beta testing or no, if you're affiliated with Tech you should have access to the bikes soon!
This is great, and it's wonderful to see the good people at Intown Bicycles participating. (See my news story this week on buying my bike there.)
I'm looking forward to getting involved with folks who are passionate about making this a more walkable and bike-able city. I'll be posting more about it as I get settled in to the job.
Bike sharing is one of the most efficient program to save the fuel and to control the pollution generated due to this. It is also fast as compare to other and easy to drive in the traffic also.
http://www.atbikes.com/cycle_type_model.ph…
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