City bike scheme as part of cycling promotion

Fermín Echarte Peña, Ayuntamiento Donostia / San Sebastian

18 de Abril 2013

Donostia / San Sebastian

1.- Background to the city

• The city of Donostia / San Sebastián overlooks the sea

• 180,000 inhabitants.

• The orographic characteristics: brown area flat area and white area hilly.

• 50 % of population lives in flat areas and 50 % in hilly areas

• For about twenty years, the city has been enforcing a strong integrated policy in favour of pedestrians, bicycles and public transport.

2.- Background to the measure and benefits

Background

In August 2004 the Mobility Department wrote a report in which two different types of management of public bike sharing service were analysed.

First test during the mobility week celebrated in September 2005, during which bicycles were available for use for free at five dispatch points: Main train station , Plaza Easo, Pio XII – Bus Station, Alderdi Eder – Town Hall, Zurriola beach).

In October 2005, a research of different public bike sharing services over Spain was conduted by the Mobility Department..

Benefits

- Increase the cycling culture and the number of cycling trips.

- Fast, convenient and flexible inner urban transport option

- It could be a “door opener” to increase the acceptance of cycling as urban transport

- Sustainable mobility choices at low cost

- It encourages intermodal travelling.

3.-Planning and implementation phaseIn September 2008, a report about location of the dispatch points was

conducted with technical analysis in which the criteria were included.

During the planning phase, areas in the city surrounding the CIVITASCorridors that could host a dispatch point based on the next criterionwere examined:

• Areas with dense population.• Areas with good cycling infrastructures.• Flat areas of the city.• Central areas of the city• Areas that are close to the city centre.• Areas where transport systems interlink.• Busy areas like for example university or office quarters.

Following this, it was decided that the neighbourhoods that could host abicycle-lending scheme were: Gros, Amara, Centro and Antiguo asthey were within the CIVITAS Corridors.

3.-Planning and implementation phase

After the selection of the neighbourhoods, we define the specificcriterions to use to locate the dispatch points.

1.- Maximum walking distance from any point of theselected neighbourhoods to the dispatch point.

It was established that the maximum walking distance would be 500metres or 7 minutes walk.

2- Interlink with public transportIn the city there is 2 train lines and a bus station:2.1.- There is one train line (Euskotren) with 3 stations in the city. Plaza

Easo, Anoeta and Lugaritz2.2.- There is a second train line (RENFE) with 1 station. Estación del

Norte2.3.- There is one bus station. Pio XII plaza3.- Busy areasWe considered the most important busy areas of the city:3.1.- Universidad Pública del Pais Vasco/Public University of Basque

Country.3.2.- Commercial area of the city centre.3.3.- Anoeta stadium and sport facilities of Amara.

3.-Planning and implementation phase

Fig3.- Dispatch point, Boulevard Fig 6.- Dispatch point, Unibertsitatea

Fig 4.- Dispatch point, Iparreko Geltokia Fig 7.- Dispatch point, Plaza Secundino Esnaola

Fig 5.- Dispatch point, Pio XII

Fig 8.- Dispatch point, Plaza Easo Fig 10.- Dispatch point, Zumalakarregi

Fig 9.- Dispatch point Anoeta Fig 11.- Dispatch point Lugaritz

2008 2010

3.-Planning and implementation phase

4.-Description of the service characteristics

TOURISTS

Conditions of use of the bicycles for tourist:Purchase the card:Where: Boulevard 8, SAN SEBASTIÁN TURISMO-

DONOSTIA TURISMOA, SA,Timetable:Monday to Saturday: 10:00-13:00 / 15:30-18:00Sundays and bank holidays: 10:30-13:00Summer- Monday to Saturday: 10:00-19:00- Sundays and bank holidays: 10:30-18.00Cost (cash payment):- 1 day: 8 € 3 days: 15 € 1 week: 25 €- Deposit: 20 €Hours of use:

- Monday to Sunday: 7:30-21:00

- Maximum continuous use: 4 hoursOnce the bike has been returned to one of the bicycle

stations, it can be used again after 30 minutes.

CITIZENS

Conditions of use of the bicycles:Purchase the card:Where: Udalinfo, Ijentea 1Cost :- 1 year: 20 €/yearCost for using the service:- First hour: free- Second hour: 1 €- Third hour: 3 €- Forth hour: 3 €Hours of use:

- Monday to Sunday: 7:30-21:00

- Maximum continuous use: 4 hoursOnce the bike has been returned to one of the bicycle

stations, it can be used again after 30 minutes.

5.- Description of system characteristics

Infrastructure• 9 dispatch points throughout the CIVITAS

corridors• 191 dispatch points.• 150 new public bicycles Users card• The system is managed automatically using a

membership card system. Software to manage• Software to manage the system and collect data to

make evaluation of the system.People working and installations• Managed by CEMUSA (Publicity company) • 2 vans and 6 people.• Installation to repair the bicycles.

•By the end of 2011 there were 5.006 users.

•In 2012, 672 new users in the system

•The number of uses increased 49,48 % between 2009 and 2010, and 63,98 % between 2010 and 2011.

•The number of uses decreased 12,83 % between 2011 and 2012.

6.- Evaluation

2422

3563

50065678

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

2009 2010 2011 2012

Accumulate number of users

68219

102241

167659146.151

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

2009 2010 2011 2012

USES PER YEAR

USES

•The number of uses for bicycle a day has increased from 1,84 uses/day(2009) to 2,96 uses/day(2010) to 4,59 uses/day(2011). It deacreased to 4,00 uses/day(2012).

•The number of users of the system are around 50 % female and 50 % male.

6.- Evaluation

1,84

2,96

4,59

4,00

0,00

1,00

2,00

3,00

4,00

5,00

2009 2010 2011 2012

NUMBER OF USES OF BICYCLE/DAY

48,21%

51,78%50,27%49,73%50,50%

49,50%

46,99%

53,01%

42,00%

44,00%

46,00%

48,00%

50,00%

52,00%

54,00%

2009 2010 2011 2012

PERCENTAGE OF USES

MALEFEMALE

•The working days are the most used days, what means that the service is used for mobility.

•Most user age is between 20 and 60 years. Young people don´t use the service.

•10 % of the users are more than 60 years old.

6.- Evaluation

05000

10000

1500020000

2500030000

Mon

dey

Tues

day

Wen

sday

Thirs

day

Frid

ay

Sat

urda

y

Sun

day

Uses by day of the week

2009201020112012

1,60%1,89%3,05%3,46%

40,80%41,23%

40,03%41,53%47,20%

46,43%46,69%

45,88%

10,40%10,43%

10,23%9,13%

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

0-20 20-40 40-60 >60

Percentage of use by age/year

2009201020112012

•The acceptance level of the system by the people that did de survey is 7,2.

•The 87 % of the people that did the survey consider that the public bike sharing system increases the use of the bicycle in the city.

1% 1%

20%

66%

13%

Overall assessment of the public bike-sharing scheme

0 ‐ very bad 2,5 5 7,5 10 ‐ very good

87%

1%

12%

Does public bike-schemeincrease the use of the bicycle in the city?

Yes No N/A

6.- Evaluation

•Increase of number of private bicycle uses since 2008 32,61 %

6.- Evaluation

7540 8401

10163 9646 10113

1163111185

12278

15424

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Number of cyclists per day

Bicycle private use

Infrastructure

Public bike sharing system

•Increase of number of km of new infrastructures 22 km of cycle lanes and 4 km of 30 zones since 2008.

•Increase of number of uses of public bike sharing system year by year.

68219

102241

167659146.151

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

2009 2010 2011 2012

USES PER YEAR

USES

Barriers

ECONOMICAL: although quite obvious, funding for the service must be defined and also must be available for next year taking into account that the maintenance cost of the service is very large.

Political decision: the political involvement is needed to implement a service like this in different areas of the city.

Define the limit on number of users registered:it is important to define the number of users that the system is designed for. This is important in order to have a good service. A limit should be established so that there are no stations without bicycle.

Service for tourist: the high number of tourists in summer has obliged to put limit on the number of bicycles for them in order to have a good service.

7.- Barriers and drivers Drivers

Location of the dispatch points and dimensioning: a good location of the dispatch points and the correct dimensioning of the system has been important for the success of the measure.

Intermodality: the service has to be connected to the public transport service in order to make it possible for people to arrive by public transport and make the last part of the trip by bicycle.

Good management of the service: a good management of the service is very important for the success of the service: maintenance of the bikes, system failure, bikes in the dispatch points.

Citizens awareness. it is very important that the citizens are involved in the idea of changing the

behaviour of mobility.

Good lessons

Analysis of the location and dimensioning the service: It is very important to do a previous analysis of the population served, number of dispatch points and area covered, number of bicycles, orographic characteristics and infrastructure construction cost and maintenance cost.

Intermodality: It is very important to locate the dispatch points near from the bus and train stations. This is useful for people using public transport to make them able to use the bicycle for the last part of the trip.

First hour free:The best way to encourage the use of the service is to make the first hour of the service free.

Service for tourists: It is important to open the service to the tourists but limited on the number of user/day. This is important in very touristic cities.

8.- Good lessons and bad lessons Bad lessons

Funding study It is very important to find the way of funding the service.

Limitation on the number of users It is important to limit the number of users depending on the dimensioning of the service. The exceed on the number of users can make the management of the service difficult.

Analysis of the location and dimensioning the service taking into account the orographic characteristics.

Definition of the characteristics of the service: hours of opening, tariffs of the service, assistance to the users

Intermodality - It is very important to locate the dispatch points near from the bus and train stations. New stations has been included in the analysis in all the new stations in the city.

Electric bicycle: Due to the orographic characteristics of the city it is important to include electric bicycles in the service.

Financial study and funding system: based in publicity in the bicycle stations and income of the tariffs of the service. Not public funding.

Service for tourists - It is important to open the service to the tourists for mobility in the city, as part as a good way of funding the system.

8.- Future plans

8.- Future plans

8.- Future plans. First 12 Dispatch points

8.- Future plans. First pilot dispatch point

www.dbizi.com

8.- Future plans. First pilot dispatch point

www.dbizi.com

• Construction of cicle lanes• Bicycle parking facilities• 30 zones• Vertical transport systems• Intermodality with public transport• Promotion capaings• Dissemination• Evaluation

9.- Other measures part of cycling promotion

Thank you!

For further information, please contact:

Fermín Echarte Peña

Municipality of Donostia / San Sebastian

Mobility Department

fermin_echarte @donostia.org

0034943481449