Does Bike Share Make Sense?
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- čas přidán 22. 07. 2024
- We’ve mentioned our love of bike share in a few videos and our surprise that the Netherlands, one of the most bike-friendly countries in the world, doesn’t have this seemingly essential service. We learned that a lot of Dutch people are kind of baffled by the concept, so in this video we’re going to make the case for bike share but also consider if there are any reasons it’s less relevant in the Netherlands.
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References:
Bike share study from Vancouver: www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Toronto bike share subsidy: www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2...
Amsterdam bike theft study: news.mit.edu/2023/where-do-st...
Bike parking regulations: bicycledutch.wordpress.com/20...
OV-Fiets as last-mile solution: mal-verkosto.fi/wp-content/up...
Study on OV-Fiets users: essay.utwente.nl/93399/1/Pluis...
Dutch person here. I just want to say how refreshing and enjoyable your videos are. No ego, no snarky comments about other places, no hot takes, always clear, nuanced, positive, and well thought-through. You really do seem to be lovely people!
With regards to the topic, at the moment, our government is failing at some pretty essential functions. Local and national government is often understaffed and overburdened. A government can only do so much and ours desperately needs to fix numerous far more pressing issues. I want it to fully focus on improving essential public services. As you say, it's on the bottom of the priority list. Could be nice to have, but not a necessity. It would also have a hefty up-front cost to roll this out across the nation.
Bike theft is a big issue in big cities like Amsterdam, less so in other places. Ive had like one bike stolen in my entire life?
One fun note, many Dutch people can perform basic maintenance on a bike by themselves, especially fixing flat tires and putting the chain back on the gears.
I get the point about less common bike theft (also never was a problem where I lived) and maintainance abilities (because of course).
What I don‘t get is the point about the government. They would maybe have to make a law to make bike share possible. But after that it wouldn‘t be their buisiness at all. Bike share can be provided by a privare company. (Ovfiets is also not owned by the government or is it?) Where I live it‘s provided by the local pubic transit provider. Technically that‘s under municipal control, but actually it is still a company that works for the municipality. The local politicians themselves don‘t have to run it. The combination with the public transit is great because your annual or monthly public transit pass also allows the use of bike share. So it‘s also convenient for users who don‘t use the share that often because they often take their own bike.
@@Alina_Schmidt There have been private attempts at setting up viable bike-share services and they failed due to lack of demand. So realistically, the government would have to do it, or they would have to provide funding to a for-profit business that runs it, or set up a new quasi-governmental organization to manage the system. Neither option is great and there's no room in the budget realistically for non-essential services.
About OV-fiets, it is not a commercial business, it's run by the state-owned Dutch railways.
Oh, what I forgot to mention is that if I remember correctly, there were some serious issues with bikeshare bikes getting stolen at an alarming rate in cities like Amsterdam. So we can't assume it would actually be cheap to run.
@@rolandxb3581 The problem with the feeble Dutch attempts at bikeshare like Mobike is that bikeshare systems need to go big or go home for the system to be attractive. There need to be places throughout the city where people can count on always finding a bike, those places need to be extremely numerous (every few hundred metres) and cover a wide area, and the bike maintenance needs to be very proactive. From what I saw of Mobike, they didn't achieve any of these requirements, which explains why they failed while systems in Canada like Toronto, Hamilton and Montréal have become very popular. And don't forget that even in Canadian cities, an extremely high percentage of people own a bicycle, even if they don't use it very often.
There are a few possibilities even in the Netherlands. The problem is not so much the availability, it is the way we use the bicycle. You simply do not have the infrastructure, and seriously, as I type this 'why do you show an incomplete sabby bicycle without fenders but with a rack'?
> many Dutch people can perform basic maintenance on a bike by themselves, especially fixing flat tires and putting the chain back on the gears
but thats only for their own bikes, not for OV-fiets bikes, right? although a community where everyone is doing their part for maintenance on the shared bike pool sounds truly wonderful to me 😻
I'm Dutch and have used bikeshare systems in places like Berlin, Salt Lake City, Stockholm and especially Łódź (Poland), since I was there the most.
What really hit home was the freedom it gave: not having to remember where you parked your bike and being constantly aware that you have to get back to that location to pick it up again. Such liberation!
This is why I use a unicycle in combination with public transportation here in the Netherlands. Since you can bring them into stores or any OV form (without the bicycle fee) have the same convenience as a folding bike, but without the folding hassle. More people should give it a try and it supports local circus clubs and circus festivals since not everyone will be able to learn it without. 😢😮😅 + it's a fun and currently rare sight to see someone like me riding in the rain on a unicycle, an umbrella and their arms full of groceries.😊
I had never thought of the similarity of a unicycle and a folding bike for commuting. And I bet it's easier to carry!
i've never riden an Unicycle, but i've done a lot on an Electric Unicycle as they are tolerated in Canada
@@Frostbiker Totally 1 hand on the saddle, like a slightly "heavy" office suitcase.
The last part has also been very helpful. With how difficult it is to ride a bicycle in the rain with an umbrella, whereas on a unicycle you are handsfree by default. Which is very useful when it's raining and you have a talent to even get lost on a straight road. (Sometimes even with gps)
But in combination with public transportation you could also use OV fiets.
It’s only not available for tourists
Sounds dangerous ngl
BIXI was super useful (and fun) when I visited Montreal, so I decided to get the year pass for the Santander Cycles now that I'm in London (UK). People are really surprised when a tell them I paid £90 for unlimited rides (student discount, £120 normally) since all other forms of commuting here are far more expensive. For my commute, it's far cheaper than any other form of transport (other than walking) and faster too (yes, even when compared to the tube, bus, and car). I could buy my own bike, sure, but I don't have much space for one and the peace of mind of knowing I'll never have my bike stolen is so so so wonderful.
It’s always surprising to me how many people don’t investigate the thing on the sidewalk that they walk past every day.
When I had a lengthy work commitment in Pittsburgh I grabbed their 500 minute bike share pass for $20. Told a couple people in the office what I was using and they all said, “wait, THAT’S how cheap those things are?!?”
I pay 12€/ year for bikemi in Milan (normal price is 36 which is still super cheap)
I get the Bixi season pass in Montreal, April through November costs 90$, about as much as the cost of a monthly public transit pass. Since I've started getting that pass 2 years ago, I've only gotten the monthly transit pass december-march. That may change this year, since Bixi will now be year-long starting next month!
The scheme in London is loss making, so that probably explains why it's so cheap. Apparently the subsidy per trip is higher than any other mode of public transport (buses are next).
Still I think it's worth it as it offers an easy way for people to try out cycling. The OV-Fiets scheme exists for different reasons, it's mainly to offer an alternative to people storing a second bike permanently in the city / town where they work (which is partly why they need those massive bike parking garages).
Oh and I think it's worth looking into Swapfiets as an alternative to the TfL bikes. Likely a little more expensive over a whole year, but then again you're not restricted to traveling to / from areas with docks. And storage / theft is less of a concern than with a bike you own, as they are not very attractive to thieves and if it does get stolen, you only pay a fixed fee to get a replacement bike.
I live in the Netherlands and would absolutely see the point in having bike share if I ever used public transportation inside of my city. But I never do. I’m always going everywhere by bike. If I do take transit, it’s going to be a train, in which case there’s always an OV-fiets waiting for me, and I will be taking a train back later that day.
yeah but now you have to take the OV-fiets where ever you go and what happens if it stolen? let say you want to go somewhere else that's too far to bike, what do you do with the OV-fiets then?
I'm not in the Netherlands but Germany, but the same is true for me. I will walk or cycle. I don't use public transit often, as I find it inconvenient compared to hop on a bike and just go. For the most part because I hate waiting. And overfilled trams.
Well, my city thined out the plans during corona. Then they kinda stuck with it. And now they are further thinning out plans, making it the most inconvenient form of transport at the moment , even tough the network is actually good. Had to go to the other end of the city yesterday and had to take transit because i'm injured (a car hit me....) and what could have been a relaxed 15 minute cycle turned out to be 50 Minutes. One way.
We have bike sharing... And for the life of me, I can't figure out a usecase for me. Either my destination is
@@TheTroyc1982 Let's be real, nobody's stealing an OV-fiets. No one will buy it from the thief. What comes to distances too long to bike, I'll return the bike at the train station and take another train again.
@@weetikissathe main drawback from an outside observer’s perspective would seem to be the per-bike-rental fee, as opposed to the monthly pass. Fine for if you only need it to and from one station, but wouldn’t you double pay if you travelled to another station for something else and then rented another OVfiets?
That said it definitely seems like the only way it would really happen is if OVfiets would be converted to a “bike share” type operating plan. Mainly to increase the usage while it’s otherwise locked-up outside your work or friend’s house. With the flexibility increase as a side benefit.
@@TheTroyc1982 those OV-fietsen don't really get stolen, the thief has no where to sell them to because it's obvious it's a stolen bike.
and all those bikes are chipped/gps tracked, so the thief gets caught really quick. it's just not worth it for a thief.
if you go to another town and you need to go somewhere from that (train)station that's to far to bike. you just take another train or bus and end up in the town/neighbourhood where you need to be. and maybe rent an OV-fiets there.
that's the ease of having one card/system (because nowadays we are able to use our bankcard or even phone) to pay/use every type of public transport in The Netherlands (including the OV-fiets). you always have the card/payment system with you.
I actually do enjoy bikeshares sometimes, especially in Helsinki, but after living in Amsterdam (with a swapfiets) it makes sense for them to have their own bikes. The difference is that EVERYONE uses bikes, not just some people. The fleet and storage for bikeshares would be insane and I'd be frequently concerned about not enough capacity in high traffic areas. That being said, it would be useful to some people at some times, especially for visitors
Dutchman here and I was thinking the same thing: if this were to become popular and the company offering wants to assure availability of both bikes AND empty docking spots for drop-off, the amount of bikes and docking points needed would be insane. A medium sized city would need maybe 10.000 bikes seeded throughout the city and 10.000 or more EMTPY docking points for those people to park them, plus probaby a few thousand parked bikes for people arriving early before the influx of the main rush hour.
(big cities like Amsterdam would need exponentially more bikes and spots probably)
You'd also need a few thousand docking points at every high school once students decide that your bike-share scheme is a good idea. And those thousands would also need to be seeded near their houses to make it useful, so you'd hundreds of seed points with maybe a dozen bikes each (plus empty spots for anyone arriving with an extra bike).
A counterpoint to how awesome it is even in non-Dutch places: when my brother and sister visited Berlin, they reported that the bike share was great, but once they wanted to park, the couldn't find an empty docking station where they wanted to go and had to park 3 docking spots further along. This made them late for dinner, which in their case, was a minor annoyance. But if you want it to commute, I don't thing managers or teachers would like it if their people keep coming in late because they couldn't find a place to park.
My point is: if you want such a scheme to stay popular once it actually gets popular, you need to ensure availability, otherwise you'll become knows as the company with that "nice idea, but there's never any bikes because they're all in use (or people can't park because all docking spots are in use)".
Like someone else mentioned in another comment: there have been attempts by companies with bike and moped sharing without fixed docking places, where you had to leave it within x meters of a GPS coordinate, but cities ended up with bikes and scooters blocking side-walks (nuisance to able-bodied person, no fun if you're in a wheel-chair or using a walker).
I'm sure I thought of more stuff while watching the video, but can't remember all of them. :)
Edit: thought of two more points: if you're trying to start this up, you'd logically want any docking spot in a convenient spot for bike parking. That means, you probably have to convince a city to not only remove a current bike parking spot, but also get a local ordinance to prohibit parking any other bikes at your docking points, otherwise they'll buried under privately-owned bikes.
Also, once you've somehow managed to scale up to the numbers mentioned above, you probably want to occasionally shuttle some bikes back and forth to maintain availability and prevent overcrowding. For cities like Amsterdam, that would probably mean a fleet of trucks to maintain just the city...
Edit2: As for OV-fiets: the only reason that gets around all the problems is because they only operate from the bigger stations, which lets someone keep and eye on them so it doesn't become a mess with the parking. Also, by mandating return to the same spot, you know there will always be parking spots for returning bikes. Like you mentioned: the downside is indeed that you're kinda forced to may daily flat rates, because people will go to where they want to go, do their thing there (work, shop, party, whatever) and then ride back to the station at the end of the day. The €5,00 rate is pretty comparable to a bus trip of the same distance, but with the benefit of not having to walk from the bus station.
Exactly, OV-fiets have these charges for returning to other locations for a reason, otherwise it would be totally unmanageable.
Good point!
I'm a European and take bike share for granted while traveling through most countries. I was shocked how difficult it was to get to use a bike in the Netherlands when I visited. In most cities on the continent I can set up an account in the local one or even use the same app and account I use at home and get riding in minutes for pennies.
I originally wrote this a reply somewhere, but that might get buried more easily, so I'll put it up here, too.
If this were to become popular and the company offering wants to assure availability of both bikes AND empty docking spots for drop-off, the amount of bikes and docking points needed would be insane. A medium sized city would need maybe 10.000 bikes seeded throughout the city and 10.000 or more EMTPY docking points for those people to park them, plus probaby a few thousand parked bikes for people arriving early before the influx of the main rush hour.
(big cities like Amsterdam would need exponentially more bikes and spots probably)
You'd also need a few thousand docking points at every high school once students decide that your bike-share scheme is a good idea. And those thousands would also need to be seeded near their houses to make it useful, so you'd hundreds of seed points with maybe a dozen bikes each (plus empty spots for anyone arriving with an extra bike).
A counterpoint to how awesome it is even in non-Dutch places: when my brother and sister visited Berlin, they reported that the bike share was great, but once they wanted to park, the couldn't find an empty docking station where they wanted to go and had to park 3 docking spots further along. This made them late for dinner, which in their case, was a minor annoyance. But if you want it to commute, I don't thing managers or teachers would like it if their people keep coming in late because they couldn't find a place to park.
My point is: if you want such a scheme to stay popular once it actually gets popular, you need to ensure availability, otherwise you'll become knows as the company with that "nice idea, but there's never any bikes because they're all in use (or people can't park because all docking spots are in use)".
Like someone else mentioned in another comment: there have been attempts by companies with bike and moped sharing without fixed docking places, where you had to leave it within x meters of a GPS coordinate, but cities ended up with bikes and scooters blocking side-walks (nuisance to able-bodied person, no fun if you're in a wheel-chair or using a walker).
I'm sure I thought of more stuff while watching the video, but can't remember all of them. :)
Edit: thought of two more points: if you're trying to start this up, you'd logically want any docking spot in a convenient spot for bike parking. That means, you probably have to convince a city to not only remove a current bike parking spot, but also get a local ordinance to prohibit parking any other bikes at your docking points, otherwise they'll buried under privately-owned bikes.
Also, once you've somehow managed to scale up to the numbers mentioned above, you probably want to occasionally shuttle some bikes back and forth to maintain availability and prevent overcrowding. For cities like Amsterdam, that would probably mean a fleet of trucks to maintain just the city...
Edit2: As for OV-fiets: the only reason that gets around all the problems is because they only operate from the bigger stations, which lets someone keep and eye on them so it doesn't become a mess with the parking. Also, by mandating return to the same spot, you know there will always be parking spots for returning bikes. Like you mentioned: the downside is indeed that you're kinda forced to may daily flat rates, because people will go to where they want to go, do their thing there (work, shop, party, whatever) and then ride back to the station at the end of the day. The €5,00 rate is pretty comparable to a bus trip of the same distance, but with the benefit of not having to walk from the bus station.
Bike share works great in Montreal and Toronto! I’d encourage you to learn more about how these programs work
Many bikeshares don't use docking points. I agree they are an inconvenience and they aren't really necessary with how cheap gps and connectivity has gotten. In my city (Wrocław) the bikes are dockless, however you pay an extra 1 eur if you leave it outside of designated spots ("stations") that used to be docks years ago, but now are simply geofenced designated areas. (Similarly you get extra credit if you bring a "floating" bike back to a station.)
The "parking", if not for bike share, will be for personal bikes, which is way worse. The problems you described is why we need transit, not why we should not have bike share.
City bike works really well in NYC which is a huge city
The multi modal use at 8:40 you describe is exactly what I think many people can't appreciate if they have not yet tried it. While I own an electric folding bike I way more use the non-electric bike share here in Nuremberg. In my commute it is the fastest way to get around when using it combined with a subway ride.
I’m from Luxembourg which has a public bike share system and am currently studying in the Netherlands. I have tried both and recognize the utility of public bike share, but I prefer the Dutch way. Public bike share is good for tourists or occasional riders, but for long-term use, it’s better to have your reliable bike than a public shared bike that may not be functioning properly (this is a problem throughout many bike share systems across Europe).
In the Netherlands, everything within an 8km radius is reachable by bike within 30 minutes. So for these short distances, it’s just faster to go to your destination with your bike rather than take a combination of public transport and (hypothetical) bike share (and its associated costs). For longer trips, (to other Dutch cities for example) the combination of train + OV fiets is good enough for occasional trips. If you do these longer trips frequently, you can either have a second bike or rent a bike long-term (like a Swapfiets) available in that city.
As a dutchie working at the regional government on cycling I really like your take on bicycle sharing and the flaws of the OVfiets scheme. I guess the biggest problem of making a working bikeshare system in NL is the needed scale - for the system to work it should be a region- or better nationwide system and with a thousands of bikes in every city at least. I would not give up on using my own bike in my hometown - but in the city where I work (Haarlem) and where I frequently visit (Alkmaar & Amsterdam) I would be awesome to use a cheap bike share system.
As a Dutch person, bike shares sound great. I think the reason we don't have it, is mostly because the whole concept of bike share came quite a lot later than when cycling became ubiquitous. That said, I'd love it if we got it at some point, but it really only works in denser areas. The main use I could see is for things like, taking the bus into the city, and then cycling home at night when busses don't run anymore, but that's pointless, since there won't be any stations near my home in an urban area.
Other than that, negating the problem of theft, and not having to do maintenance are pretty darn convenient too, but I can see how many people are just happy with their own bikes. I've used the OV fiets a few times, and because it has to "work for everyone", they're rather uncomfortably small bikes, which makes them less appealing.
How tall are you? I'm 1.90m and found OV-Fiets pretty comfortable for my height.
As a Singaporean, bike share had a rocky start in 2017, leaving a mess everywhere as many venture capital companies imploded under a dockless system. But nowadays it has become a successful and convenient way for many people to commute on bicycle, since for the end-user, it is as if the bike can teleport everywhere. The system works well enough that from my knowledge, Anywheel, the company which runs the biggest bike share operation in Singapore, is now breaking even. Their bikes are single speed, but they are fast and robust.
Many of our docking stations are also very simple: a painted yellow box and a QR code on already existing concrete pavement, some of them don't even have racks at all! You won't run out of bike parking most of the time, since you can always pack the bikes closer to one another.
From Chicago, I agree with the Dutch. We have bike share (Divvy) in Chicago and I've never used it because it is only located in areas that well served by transit and walking. Biking is more valuable the farther you get from the urban center because there's bigger gaps between rail lines. For someone who lives 2 to 4 miles from their local train station, a $5 rental would be outstanding. One could take the bike home and drop it off at the train station the next morning. That system is easier than building bike share terminals everywhere. One potential issue is that this service could take away bike parking for people who own their own bikes. That would make a lot of people upset. This would need to be rolled out in a thoughtful way.
A big problem which made bike share companies go away from the Netherlands, were complaints about abadoned rental bike in public space. So a lot of city governments forbidded them. Also, space is a problem you might underestimate. We have very compact city centres which are full of parked bikes. Having racks exclusively for rental bikes, would feel like an unfair claim of public space which could be used for all bikes. Of course, we also can create more underground parking spaces, but that's of course very costly.
Wouldn't dedicated bike share racks reduce the number of parked bikes? If only one person is using a bike, it's going to spend most of its time sitting parked in one place. With a bike share, the bikes will all be used by many people, so there should be less need for space, right?
@@Gekiganger03no it wouldn’t. Because the trips people here do on a bike or even would like to do on a bike would be more easily done with the bikes already owned by them.
Also, looking at the racks for the share bikes in the video, that takes up the same amount of space as 3 times the number of self owned bikes. For each share bike you need the parking space of 3 regular bikes. That means only a third of the normal amount of people can come by bike. Will you break the news to the Dutch? That the number of people in bikes need to be cut down to a third?
@@amberflokstra88 That is a problem with docks. However plenty of systems work without docks, like Donkey Republic or the scooters (not the electric kickbike, but the moped type) from Felix and Check. Although I have to admit that the users of these services seem to be a bit careless in where to park these sometimes.
@@wernerrietveld Which then cycles (pun not intended lol) back to the problem timdeleeuw pointed out where bike rentals get banned because of that exact reason.
@@aquariamoon2451 In Copenhagen and Odense in Denmark you can only leave your Donkey republic bikes in designated geofenced areas. These coincide with a public parking rack. There are limits to how many bikesharing bikes can be left in a single zone, ensuring space for non-sharing/regular bikes. The municipal administration have the legal power to regulate these companies and since this regulation was introduced the issues with electric kickscooters and private company bikesharing bikes being left in problematic locations seems to have been mostly solved.
I think this is a good solution:
- No public space used for bike share dedicated racks, the existing infrastructure is used for both bikeshare bikes and private bikes.
- Given that the bikes are just regular bikes and the "intelligence" is only in the app on your phone and the bluetooth lock on the bike, I think these bikes must be significantly cheaper. AFAIK Donkey republic is operating without public subsidies in Copenhagen, while being still affordable.
I use these bikes on a daily basis as a part of my private bike-train-bikeshare bike commute. I am usually satisfied with the amount of bikes close to where I need them, with the state of the bikes and with the places I can leave them again.
The geofenced areas are by necessity of GPS precision slightly larger that the actual bike rack, so occasionally a bike is not left in a rack, but close by, but it is not a big issue.
I am a sceptic of docked systems, but I am moving to a city that has them so maybe it will change my mind :)
Karlsruhe has a dock less system that I use quite frequently. As a University student you get 30 mintues free for every ride after that just 50ct/30min(well "free", everyone pays a few euros per term). I think it's really useful because you can be even more spontaneous. For docked systems you need to know where you can return it and the docks at the university would be full every morning. Here I just scan a bike I walk past or check ghe app for bikes nearby. I don't usually see them blocking sidewalks or streets, the only disadvantage of dock less is, some people illegally take them into the house and you can't find the bike you are looking for.
3:38 yes! Bike theft was my first thought as well. I’ll almost always prefer taking my own bike somewhere just because I’m used to it and have it setup the way that I like.
But if I plan to leave my bike locked up somewhere for a long period of time and am worried about theft than bike share is a great option.
It’s also awesome for flexibility. Like if I meet up with a friend somewhere and they don’t ride, but then we want to go to a second place which is a short ride away…we’ll they can easily just grab a bike from the bike share and off we go!
If a city has scooter culture, every home and business could choose to allow you to bring your scooter inside, and protect it from theft. Unlike bikes, scooters fit basically everywhere. Keeping scooters out of rooms is just a cultural issue, like whether a culture allows wearing shoes indoors.
All great reasons for bike share! Calgary has been experimenting with it - and has a LOT of scooters, too. I would love to see bike share integrated into the transit system. A holistic focus on transportation would be great!
scooters are one thing that really don't need to be shared, except for tourists who visit by plane. scooters biggest strength is they do not require physical modifications to the world, people just have to choose to bring their scooter with them.
Absolutely! A key reason I don't ride my bike to the C-train is because of the rampant theft at the stations. A docked system might work well for most of central Calgary, but not so much where I currently live in a fairly low density part of the city where few would consider walking to a dock. Dockless integration might be the ultimate solution in Calgary with designated parking squares at major bus stops and train stations. In the meantime, I'll continue riding my bike 100% of the way to my destination or walking to a bus stop and taking Calgary Transit where I need to go.
I just moved to DC and signed up for the CaBi bikeshare. It is hands down the most convenient way to get around the city. However, it is so good that docks are often empty!
Same in Luxembourg, always gone or sometimes vandalized in certain neighbourhoods.
I was in NL last year, and really struggled with looking for bike rentals. The one private bikeshare was really poorly maintained, and as the video said OV-fiets wasn't for foreigners. Even if it were, the system wouldn't have fit my use case.
I visited DC a few months ago and spent 2 weeks riding around on the CaBis. My very first thought was "*this* is how it should be done!"
They kinda started the bike share idea with the provo white bicycle plan back in the 60s but only more based. They collected several hundred bikes, painted them white, and left them around the city to be freely used.
That was the first bike share program in the world. 😊
yep@@jannetteberends8730
As a Dutch person I indeed have an opinion on bikes :P I think you have a very valid point about the OV fietsen. It often doesn't make sense to rent these for more than a full day. I think it could indeed be replaced by a bike share system instead. Regarding keeping the bikes safe; People either store them in their garage / shed, or when they live in an apartment building, there will be a locked area in the basement/ground floor where people can store their bikes.
We do have an option for more long-term renting of bikes in some citiescalled swapfiets, which I believe also operates in Denmark and some parts of germany. They essentially lease bikes to you for a fixed fee of about 30 euros per month and they will do all maintenance on your bike. Whenever something's up you can just send them a message and they will replace your bike with an alternative one.
Always love to hear your opinions! You have such great videos 😍😍
Adding in a dutch perspective: I never really considered bike sharing, but this video does show how it has a lot of potential and can potentially be great for a lot of cities. Of course, every city is slightly different, and thus the specifics of how will also be different from city to city, and country to country.
So while I do agree that existing bike sharing/renting can be expanded to a lot of benefit, I don't necesarrily think the same exact model as used in Canada will fit the needs for most in the Netherlands as is.
For some examples: I myself live in a place that is the border between large town and small city, having a lot of the benefits of good Urban design, but being small enough that all the amenities in town are comfortably in walking or cycling distance. I doubt bike sharing options would really have a lot of space here for stations to pick up and return them. So if I were to visit another city, the current 24 hour model for the OVfiets would cated to exactly this type of visitor.
While biketheft is really big in Amsterdam, lots of other cities have put in measures to curb bike theft, and i only lost a bike once, and I'm still not sure if it was stolen, or more likely, confiscated for improper parking. So the bike theft angle doesn't add much appeal either, even when I did live in larger cities.
Outside of the direct Randstad, I feel like most cities would not necesarrily benefit from having a bike sharing service that requires dedicated parking stations for them. Especially since a lot of businesses have direct bike parking available already.
My own suggestion, if the governments have enough money for it, would be to expand the OV-fiets, while the 5 euros for 24 hours model is useful to me, for people who need it for a regular commute, a cheaper monthly subscription would be a much more appealing option, especially if employers can pay that cost for their employees. Secondly, a lot of cities I've lived in had protected indoors bike parking, One example that could help, is if these also served as pick-up and drop-off points for an OVfiets or similar service. (theoretically these could also work with a new service, but I think OVfiets has a larger chance of making this work, since the dutch government is the sole shareholder in the NS) these parking spots are usually near the city centre, the limit the parking inside it, but since that's often also where a lot of shopping centre's are positioned it would singificantly add viability to such a program.
However, I think the big reason why bike sharing is not as popular here, is largely because we have managed to tackle most of the issues that bikesharing would combat, outside of Amsterdam, very few people really are concerned with bike theft. most of us know basic maintenance, and if not bike repair shops are quite common. And parking bikes is currently quite convenient at most destinations, while a bike share system would often require dedicated parking spots specifically only for those bike-share bikes, which I don't think a lot of businesses would see the value investing in currently.
I did a 50 minute bicycle commute to another town 2 times a week for a while. One time, my bicycle broke down catastrophically in the middle of the trip (probably related to lacking maintenance, I'm quite bad at maintenance in general). I walked into the small village I was near and dropped my bicycle off at the bicycle repair shop there (after waiting a bit for it to open). Bus service was somewhat challenging there, but yeah, bike repair shops are everywhere in this country...
Hi, I'm Dutch, and when I first started this video, I must say, I was quite sceptical about the practicality of a bikeshare system for the Netherlands. Now, however, I think you're right and we are missing out. It is a better solution to the last mile problem than the OV-fiets (I've often had to pick people up from the station because 5 euros for a trip from the station to my home and back seems a bit steep). I would mainly use it in other cities than my own, since I already own a bike (which on a per-month basis is still way cheaper than bikeshare, for a bigger upfront cost and the need to store and maintain it yourself). I think it would also lower the need for owning multiple bikes, like carshare services are lowering the need to own a (second) car. Also, I think that you're right on the OV-fiets being available to foreigners. It's a crying shame that it is so hard to obtain an OV-chipkaart. Now, we're making people get throwaway tickets and they cant use the OV-fiets bike rental system. Just make generic cards and slap on a big deposit, to be returned when the card is. The Netherlands still have a lot of opportunities to expand our public transit services. Thank you for your videos!
but does a foreigner want to pay a deposit of several hundred €.
the big problem i think is that a company in The Netherlands doesn't have the means to get the money owned to them from a foreigners account in case of theft/destruction of the bike. so until that's figured out with foreign banks/governments companies don't want to risk all the costs of foreigners destroying their property and leaving the country before paying for the damages.
if foreigners are able to pay with their bank cards to and those banks are obliged to transfer the funds even if the user doesn't have enough in their account. so the rental company is assured it gets it's money, i don't see a reason not to have the system being available to foreigners.
what a lot of people forget/don't realize is that we in The Netherlands are spoiled with how easy it is to use digital payment options. a lot of places are years behind in that, and it takes some time for people from those countries to be able to use the systems made for our digital infrastructure.
look at paying with Ideal or a Tikkie, those things are almost science fiction for some other (developed) countries. (for example: a lot of people in the US still get payed with checks from their employer)
Most people commuting by train have 2 bikes, one at each station.
At the moment there are bike sharing programs in some cities, I’ve seen bikes of them. Don’t know if they are successful.
The first bike share program in the world was actually Dutch. The so called “witte fietsen plan” by Provo. That was also the start of the anti car movement in the Netherlands. It failed for different reasons, but it is still used in some specific places.
Doesn’t seem that long ago that we went down to Verdun and I pushed you guys to ride that bixi. Cost me $20 getting an eBixi out that long, but at the time I guessed it would be a good investment!
Dutch person here: Bikeshare (and more commonly: Scooter share) actually does exist in many places, sometimes even by multiple providers but they tend to get relatively lightly used and the bikes end up absolutely everywhere they shouldn't be half of the time. Except if you're in a place you don't normally go too with unreasonably poor public transportation (Yes, we do have transport deserts here), they're basically never necessary because everyone who does need them for first/last mile transit, pretty much always already has a bike and because of how common (and cheap) just setting up a trasher bike at your place of destination is, they're rarely needed for that too.
The only real situation where I've seen the hype about bikeshare actually emulated here is when public transport companies want to cut cost and they try to present bikeshare as an alternative for passengers who simply lose their connection. It generally doesn't work (even though a few benefit, most passengers just stay away) and provides no actual alternative for the people most reliant on public transport who often either can't handle the extra costs and/or just can't consistently cycle safely to begin with.
Given the above, I've got mixed feelings about bikeshare systems. - Especially due to the way they're often used as an argument to destroy public transport under the guise of "increasing mobility".
The description and also the spoken text in the video is a bit misleading. We do have bike-share here in some places in NL. As a matter of fact the turquoise/greenish looking bike at czcams.com/video/ZrwO2haqaL8/video.html is one example of a bike-share in Utrecht. It's just not that popular. What I do really like is that there is also an 'e-bakfiets' /e-cargo-bike share option in Utrecht, that actually is somewhat popular, but more rare.
I am amazed at how low the subsidies for the bike share are! 68% covered by user fees is much higher than I'd expect
My dad realized he could ride his own bike to the local suburban train station and then get on the train and then use a bike share bike from the dock at the downtown station to get to work and return the bike at the bike dock that’s a block away from the office.
He doesn’t need to take his bike on the train (even though they started allowing bikes on all trains recently), and doesn’t need to lock his own bike in downtown where theft is more common.
He can also choose to take a bus if it start raining there and a family member can pick him up from the local station if it starts raining here.
This video does an awesome job of highlighting the real superpower of bike share - the one way trip!
I own a bike in Toronto, and I use bike share all the time. If had to give up access to bike share or my own bike, I’d give up my bike - the service is that useful
We used to have a few bike share options in Amsterdam, around 6 years ago. It resulted in abandoned bikes everywhere. The municipality has stopped these bike sharing experiments after about 6 months.
London has a great bike share system. I see lots of people riding them all the time
Great video. I own multiple bikes, but I’ve never tried the local bike share here in Chicago (Divvy). This video gave me great ideas about how to use it to add flexibility and less stress to my journeys so I will definitely be using it in the future. Thanks!
ive been thrilled to see my US city putting bikeshare stations all over the place. ive utilized it many times now. much cheaper than taking an uber which would be the only viable alternative for certain trips
unfortunately many people seem to write it off as a gimmick but its so convenient
Toronto here. Bixi (now called Toronto Bike Share) was at first perplexing but once the rates were tuned and adjusted, and once the critical mass of docks was reached this became absolutely essential last mile transit for my family. I no longer use our personal bikes for commuting. This video is spot on.
I live in Chicago with a Brompton and a Divvy membership. I find it's the perfect combo. I use my Brompton for recreation, grocery shopping, getting around the neighborhood, and going to activities where I know I can bring it right inside.
When I'm going out to spend time in the greater part of the city, a mix of Divvy and public transit is the perfect match. I can ride the train there so i don't get sweaty, then ride home for a bit of exercise and to spend some more time outdoors. It is also a great option for live events and theaters where I cannot bring my Brompton inside and definitely would not want to leave it, or any bike, locked up outdoors unsupervised for hours. The ease of bike share works great for going to a movie or concert.
The flexibility to pickup a bike almost anywhere and drop it off almost anywhere else opens up so many options in the moment that you just wouldn't think of. It's kind of like "Now you're thinking with portals" but "Now you're thinking with bike share."
You forgot biking to a party, getting hammered, then uber/transit back home.
In the Netherlands, we also have a private service called Swapfiets: you pay around €20 a month on the most basic plan for a "rental" bike that actually stays in your possession for as long as your subscription continues. You can treat it as basically your own bike: you use it as often as you like, no restrictions, and you can park it anywhere you want. I've been using the same Sawpfiets bike for over a year now and I must say it's a great service. The subscription fees also include maintenance on the bike, and in case it gets too damaged you can swap it for a new one. Also, if it gets stolen, you also get a replacement and only pay a small fine if you can prove it was locked, i.e.: you have the key in your possession (they key can only be pulled out of the lock when it's locked). If you didn't do it, then you pay a full fine, which is the price of the bike itself. I consider it to be superior than the usual bike share services.
My wife and I are in our 60's and live on a 3rd floor Maryland apartment with no elevator. For years we have carried our 30-year-old cheap non-folding, non-electric bikes down and up those stairs every day to visit friends, church, exercise, shopping, and errands all by bicycle. We must be crazy, poor, or both. I'm 6'5" with legs long for my height, she is 4'11" with legs short for her height. The nearest bike-share is 3 miles away. The nearest metro station is about 5 miles away. We lock our bikes with a cable and have never had anything stolen yet. We occasionally pass bike-share stations, but more often we see dead bike-share e-bikes and e-scooters abandoned on trails. The only place we ever see anyone riding bike share bikes is when we ride to downtown DC, and those seem like mostly tourists. Even if there was bike share near us, the bikes would be too big for her and too small for me. Like the Dutch, I fail to see the appeal. Am I missing something?
I think the main problem is that transit to work is mainly one-way two times a day. Thousands go left and nobody is going right kinda thing. Bike share works with circulation and on work days there isn't (hardly) any. We should have mixed workspace and living space up more but we didn't.
Management is for sure one of the most important parts of bike share. My college campus had a bike share system, but it was not well managed. There were only a half dozen or so stations around the relatively small campus, and yet there were constantly stations with no bikes or completely full so that you couldn't park there. Even when there were bikes at a station, the stations themselves often just didn't work; it either wouldn't read your ID card or if it did, it just wouldn't release the bikes after it gave you a code. They simply could not be relied on for anything important, like getting to class on time. People almost exclusively used them to get to dining halls, the library, and friends' dorms. I just kept my own bike and it was infinitely more convenient, although I did often try to use the bike share when I was out somewhere without my bike, often unsuccessfully for any of the reasons I mentioned. It was always especially awkward when you were with a group of friends and planned to use the bike share but there was 1 too few bikes at the station or the station just wouldn't read one of your ID cards or anything like that and suddenly everyone has to put their bikes back to not leave anyone behind; several minutes wasted successfuly taking out bikes just to not be able to use them anyways.
Had the bike share system actually been reliable, and preferably if there were even more stations too, I probably would've used them a lot more. But as it was, they were treated as an afterthought. A minor convenience that looked good to incoming students on a tour but that few people actually relied on in any meaningful way.
I've used the bikeshare systems in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, and Québec and loved them - really wish we could get a system here in Ottawa one day
If Ottawa had bikeshare I'd bike through the winter. I don't want my bike rusting out from the salt
When I went to Copenhagen I was a big fan of the different bike share options they had. There was an orange bikeshare called Donkey something with a good variety of bikes with different accessories and features. I saw a ton of people using them
Washington DC's Capital BikeShare is growing and becoming more and more useful. I find its price structure a bit weird and and it doesn't really help me specifically. Being stuck way out in the suburbs, it would be a great option to take a bikeshare to the nearest Metro station, especially since buses stop running at like 9PM. They've recently installed a dock at my local Metro station, but there's only one other dock out in this area, and it's not much further away than across a big parking lot, so not much use. Hopefully the expand to be more useful.
Send a note to your local council and other elected officials in your area asking to extend the bike share program to specific locations (ask your friends do the same). It will help!
i use a bike share in the morning to go to the metro station because im usually in a hurry, then when im goingback home in the evening i have more time and usually take a walk
Great analysis. In my experience so far, Bixi is the best bike share system of any city I've visited. There's just so many stations, so there is always one near your destination. I don't use bike share all that often in my city (I don't have the monthly pass), maybe only a half dozen times a year, but I think the biggest reason is because I live on the first floor and it is easy to get my bike in and out.
My most frequent trip for using bike share is to coast half a dozen blocks downhill to get a takeout burrito, then walk uphill back home.
It's also been handy for going out. I might take a car share to get to my destination a little quicker (and less sweaty) - or an ebike from the bike share - then bike home when I'm a little tipsy. I won't have to worry about the safety or location of my own bike between places on a pub crawl (a friend once put the call out for people to help find their "stolen" bike, only for someone to find it the next day - still safely locked up a block over from where they thought they left it). Even just finding a good place to lock up my bike isn't always guaranteed to be available despite the decent cycling infrastructure and culture of Vancouver - but isn't a worry if I'm traveling within the availabilty area of the bike share.
I also used the bike share services while visiting Toronto and Seattle, and they were great to get around the city when I was there for work for a few days and only needed a bike occasionally.
I live 50 miles outside of Boston. I bought a bike share annual plan and used it enough to offset the cost over single rides in about six months despite not living or working in the city. I now have the option of driving to satellite parking and biking the last five miles or taking a bus or a train and biking from the train station.
I think here in the Netherlands it is also a bit of a chicken and egg situation, due to most people who want to bike already owning a bike initial bike share offerings have a hard time getting of the ground (due to e.g. only being available in a single region/town, to few bikes available. not enough infrastructure to manage those bikes, etc driving up expenses), and this then contributes to the view that bike share are not needed here, or don't fit. (also the few companies that tried often used smartphone apps with no fixed bike stands, meaning people left the bikes just wherever irritating other road users (often pedestrians)). That said I do think a good, nation wide system, could be beneficial, though probably will not happen currently for reason that have not much to do if it is a good idea or not.
I live in Cologne, Germany and we also have a bike share system here run by a private company. However they do it in cooperation with and branded as a service of our local transit authority (under the name KVB Rad). So every person, including tourists, can use it for a fee as long as they have a phone number to sign up for the service. But if you have a public transport subscription with the local transit authority you get an unlimited amount of free 30 minute rides, even back to back on the same bike if you end the ride within their service zone.
I do have my own bicycle and use it to commute to work, visit friends etc. as long as the weather is okay. However I still use the bike share system on a regular basis for trips that I would usually not take my own bike for. For example when I go out to have some drinks, I use a shared bike to get to the bar and take transit to get back home later. I also end up using the shared bikes a lot for the last mile after a tram ride.
I think the bike share system is a great way to complement our transit services as well as my own bike for certain trips and would not want to miss it anymore
In my city (actually the whole county) of Stavanger in Norway we have a bikeshare program integrated in the transit ticket so you get 15 mins for free if you have a transit ticket, it is very popular and I use it quite often.
Side note: It would sure be nice if the vehicles they used to schlep bicycles around between docks & maintenance were electric. That's one of the best use cases for EVs vs ICE.
Great video. My main reservation with Public bike share is the necessity to have docks no more than a few hundred metres apart city wide. I have seen few cities that are committed to that level of service. An additional cost is also the necessity for bike share to be electric in hilly cities. That can lead to hilly cities placing docks further apart. If you have to walk 500 metres over hills to a dock or 800 metres to a metro you will just walk or use your own e mobility device.
In Seattle we just have dockless bikes/scooters and, yeah, most of them are electric at this point. It seems to work fine.
San Francisco's Baywheels system currently removes the e-bike fee if you undock from a dock that has no "classic" bikes listed. Once I learned about this secret discount, I started using the e-bikes more often, opportunistically. I suspect that they're actually transitioning out the classics as time goes on because other parts of the bike fail much more often than the battery. So the effect I'm feeling is that as I continue using the service more and paying my modest $169/year membership, I am getting more mobility: the number of stations expand, the city makes more moves towards cycling infrastructure, and the bikes themselves go faster(which I don't always want, but it is a pleasure to feel them accelerate). I don't feel this same effect with a transit pass, because transit isn't adding capacity in this way, at this rate. While it's easy to end up paying more with a bikeshare by ignoring the per-minute fee, it's also not hard to use it and only pay the base cost. If I bought an e-bike instead, I'd be paying for something like 10 years of membership, plus maintenance costs, risk of theft, etc.
I don't think the Netherlands is positioned in the same way, since the networks and bicycle fleets are already there; the appeal would most likely come from seeing the bikeshare as a convenient way to "upgrade" to e-bike.
The main issue I'd love to see solved with bike share is transport of kids. On my bike I've got children seats (even 2, one in the front, 1 in the back).
With bike share I can't transport them. And if they were older I couldn't find children size bikes.
Even if my city offered cargo bikes (which I don't think they do) they would be rare and you couldn't reliably find them.
My wife and I had a date with a friend at a movie theater. She lives in our neighborhood. My wife and I rode Citi Bike (NYC's bike share) to the theater. After the movie, we walked home with our friend because our friend doesn't ride bikes. So we got to ride one way. We can't do that with our own bikes.
in the Netherlands we would have offered that friend either to ride on the back of the bike or even on the rod connecting the saddle part with the steering part of the bike.
so for us it wouldn't be problem to have someone "extra" on the ride home. or we just walk with the bikes in hand.
if you grow up with those options it's a lot more normal to do so.
My american city of ~220k people ( Huntsville, AL) has a big bike share program and i'm honestly surprised by just how popular it is! I always see people on the bikes when I'm downtown. This video helped me understand why they are so popular.
I love using the DC CitiBike system - I've been able to do multi-day business trips without ever setting foot in a car!
I've used Bixi in the past, but in all honesty: I prefer to use my own foldable eBike to get around Montreal. The Bixi's are too heavy and often struggle going uphill. Which for me is a dealbreaker since where I live usually requires me to ride uphill.
Minneapolis has been so frustrating when it comes to bikeshare. There used to be a non-profit bikeshare program called Nice Ride, but even then, renting a bikeshare was $2.50 per activation and then a whopping $16/hr (charged by the minute), or $10/hr with a membership. That service never operated during the winter when it would arguably be most useful, but they never came back when spring arrived this year and the non-profit unceremoniously shut down. In its place are private scooter rideshares like Lime (and currently no bikes), which are $1 to unlock and are $23/hr, which at that point is as expensive as getting an Uber/Lyft and basically useless for nearly all trips, especially since many of the biggest trip generators in the city are off-limits to e-scooters anyway. It's confusing, opaque, and wildly overpriced.
I have 3 different standard type bikes to get me around Denver. Even with them, I’d still be willing to pay up to $20/mo for reliable bicycles I can do a one-way trip on, such as when I fly, shortening my initial trip by 30 minutes in the morning, bicycling to get groceries & then using transit to get home with full bags (I have panniers & use them too), or getting to a location too far to walk from transit where I don’t need my bike otherwise. We had a municipal bike share in Denver until the pandemic but deferred maintenance accumulated & costs were unattractive. We now have bike & scooter share companies but they charge an activation fee & per minute fee for use so a 2-mile journey can be $5-9 easily!
I also haven't released all the benefits of using a public bike share before I tried it. It's super convenient here in NYC. Citi bike in NYC covers all my needs in the city and I don't use subway as often as before I signed up for Citi bike. I use my own foldable bike that I keep at home for longer trips outside of the city only and never worry about bike theft anymore (victim in the past)
Madrid is also a good example of an electric bike share program to promote cycling. Modal share and the amount of cycling infrastructure are both very low in the city, but the bikes being electric widens the range of people willing to bike on narrow traffic calmed streets (especially when they were well-maintained pre-corona).
Plus, being able to zip home on an ebike after a late night definitely beats paying for a taxi or waiting until 6AM for the metro to open back up!
theres absolutely good usecases for bikeshares... but when bikes are incredibly ubiquitous, the whole operation becomes less feasible, as fewer people would use the service
but as a public utility with dedicated stations that are maintained i can absolutely see it as a great addition to a public transit system
PS: i can especially see it as a useful system for visitors and tourists, because long distance transport of your own bike isnt really feasible most of the time either
I own a bike and still use bike share, because there are going to be situations where I don't have my bike with me. And there are plenty of sitatutions where it is needed.
It is not exactly bike share, but in Amsterdam (at least) you can get Swapfiets, recognisable by the blue front tires. I think that mostly students and expats, and other people who do not plan on a permanent stay here, use it. You pay a monthly fee for use of one bike, but the benefit is that the bike is quickly replaced if damaged or stolen and if you have to leave the city, you don't have a bike you need to take with you or otherwise get rid of.
For actual bike share, OV fiets really does fill the niche. We have a pretty good (if expensive) public transport so the optimal use case is you use your own bike to go the train or (major) bus station, then at the destination station use the OV fiets to go the final destination, and return.
I’ve been a Montrealer for 12 years and just used bixi for the first time today! I’ve always had my own bike so didn’t see the point but was on the metro this morning when it broke down, so grabbed a bixi to get to work!
thanks so much for this excellent summary on the pros of bikeshare!
The last mile solution is indeed the greatest benefit of the bike share system, especially on the transit station on the destination. Biking from home to the transit station is literally same with park and ride but with bike. We ride our bike to the station, left it on the bike parking area, ride the transit. But when we arrive at the destination station, we don't have our bike because, obviously, it was left at departing station. This ended up making a last mile problem on the destination where our destination are out of convenient walking distance (nobody want to walk for one hour). With the bike share on the destination station, we can reach our destination place that are out of walking distance.
one of my co workers in Toronto used to use the bike share and I think it is a great idea. Now he did not live to far away from the job site so he took a bike most days . I live further away so I took the GO(train).
From the Netherlands here, and I do think you have a few great points, they should lower the OV fiets price, and more bike sharing would mean less parking spots are needed. We do have 'Swapfiets' and it is popular amongst locals, but it is rather your own bike and the service just provides it is serviced or swapped when it is broken. Also, the government provides the 'Fietsplan' to many employees, which is a budget of say 750 euro to buy a bike, and every three years iirc you can get another Fietsplan. And yeah, I have had friends over from abroad who would have loved an OV fiets as well.
Bike share is awesome, but I find the lack of decent reliability the biggest disadvantage. In my experience, it's not quite the "guaranteed cycling experience _whenever we want_ " [3:57]. At least in Paris, it is neither guaranteed to find a (functional) bike at any nearby station to start a trip, nor to find a parking space at a nearby station at the end of the trip.
As a Glaswegian who doesn’t live in the Netherlands at all, I have to wonder if converting OV-fiets to a more flexible system might be the answer.
Employer coverage could just go to the monthly pass, and the worker would retain the same after-work flexibility in practice. But they wouldn’t need to be locked-up along all the private bikes in the work day, other people could use them as-needed instead.
You’d need docks separate from the train stations but it seems the simplest way to get the critical coverage needed to get people actually using the system - something the private network map clearly doesn’t have outside the city centre.
I definitely see people using the short-term rental bikes here in Glasgow, though my nearest station is also the train station. But my dad’s taken one for a few hours in a summer visit once, and they’re well-placed for riverside rides and so on.
I can’t think of a reason why bike share is necessary in The Netherlands. When you talk about The Netherlands you seem to think everyone lives in a city centre in Amsterdam. Which is not the case. Most people live in commuter towns or residential areas of a city. Most people use their bicycle every day to do their grocery shopping, going to the sports club in the evening , cycle to work or school in the early morning, to the train station and sometimes just recreational. Many young people cycle to the city center when they go out partying on Saturday night so they can drink. Many families bring or pick up their kids from school and buying groceries on the way back. I think it’s not very handy to search for a bike share station to find a bicycle. When you use a bicycle every day you want to be fit for you. And it’s much more convenient a bicycle is always available, don’t have to search for it and don’t have a time limit.
Maintenance is not a problem. Small repairs can be done the average Dutch. Larger issues can be done by a bike repair shop. Theft is a problem but you can buy good lock at a bike store. And lots of people have two bikes; one cheap second hand for short trips which isn’t likely to be stolen. And a more expensive one, often an e-bike which can be used for longer distances.
Back share seems great for city centers of large cities especially tourists. But not for people who use a bicycle every day doing multiple things living in a outskirt of a city or a commuter town like most Dutch people.
yeah one of the big reasons why bike share don't takes off in The Netherlands is that the country is build to accommodate bikes. so people find using their own bike already really convenient and bike share doesn't add anything for us.
bike share just came to late to be able to find it's place in The Netherlands, for us it would be like taking a step back not forward.
@@ChristiaanHW that is one reason. But it’s also very impractical to have to search for a bike every time you want to cycle. For example, people do their daily grocery shopping using a bike. Most people live in a residential area. So when you want to buy your diner you first need to walk to a bike station which probably is halfway on the way to the supermarket. Hopefully there is a bike. I am quite tall so you have to adjust the bike. Cycle to the supermarket. Buy you groceries constantly watching your watch because there is a time limit apparently for bike share. You cycle back to the bike station with your groceries. Probably those bike from the bike sharing doesn’t have a basket to put your groceries in unlike your own bike. From the bike station you still have to walk to your home. According to oh the urbanity this is useful? I don’t see the point of it.
@@joglijogli6898 yes and in places where they lack the bike infrastructure they wouldn't be as likely to have a bike at home, because it's not as easy to cycle to your house as in The Netherlands.
So they don't mind to walk to a docking station.
While becasue in The Netherlands we have safe and practical door to door cycle infrastructure. We are less inclined to walk sonewhere, get a bike, park the bike, and walk to our destination.
So because our infrastructure is more cycle inclusive we don't have a need for bike share services.
Honestly, I had mixed thoughts before clicking but after hearing your points I 100% agree. I would definitely use something like that if I had it in my city.
As a dutchie who owns one bike, After seeing this video, I see no use for bikeshare for me. Maybe for big cities it has a use if you live small in an urban location, But other than that, nope.
Also, the maintenance cost is pretty low. For my bike that I own, I spent less than € 100 over the past 18 years combined on maintenance.
I live in an area that has limited public transit in the late afternoon and early night, making it impractical to attend events late at night because the public transit home doesn't align too well with when those events end. I would love to have access to a better "last mile" option that takes me from the closest frequent public transit and home, but I don't know if my area is dense enough for proper bike share and it definitely won't warrant increased frequencies when the busses we already have are almost empty.
More density would be the best solution and safer bicycle parking closer to the well-connected areas nearby would probably do it, but I don't know if it would make sense to build safe bicycle parking in an area it makes sense to e-bike to, with better transit options.
OV-Fiets can be used by foreigners. I've just came from the Netherlands and used it.
You do have to have an OV card that can be bought online but it can only be shipped to a Dutch address, though. It makes it almost inaccessible to foreigners, but they can use it. Let's hope that at some point OV cards can be bought at train stations.
I do get the point on OV-Fiets. It's designed for when you travel to another city, as it's available nationwide. And it works really well. I guess they don't need it for last mile or commuting because they already invested heavily in safe bike parking in homes, train stations and office buildings so it's very convenient for people to use their own bikes. And there's also Swapfiets if you don't want to have your own bike or deal with maintenance or theft
I got the impression it can be sent to other countries when I just had a look at the application form after watching this video... as long as they are on this short list: Germany, Belgium, Luxembourgh. And there was a cryptic hint that it might be possible? "Do you have a foreign IBAN but do you not live in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany or Luxembourg? Please fill in our contact form and we will help you further. You can apply for an OV-chipkaart with any valid IBAN.".
Additionally I noticed whenever I would click on the form to add the OV fiets product to an OV chipkaart it would send me to the Dutch version of the NS webshop even from the english page. And switching language there with the "English" button in the top right would cause me to leave the webshop. Tried getting there in various ways but it just wasn't letting me, it's not friendly at all even for people who live here but don't read Dutch yet.
I kinda get why NS set it up this way as they mostly serve domestic train/public transit users, providing this bicycle service is already an extra thing to do. If they had to it to handle peak tourist capacity as well they'd need a lot more bicycles and staff that aren't needed outside the season. Still it would be nice if there was a quick way to buy a (temporary) card for a few weeks at the bicycle facility of whatever train station, they could even slap on a large deposit in case of damage/theft/loss that gets returned when the card is returned. If capacity is an issue I guess they could limit the number of active temporary cards by just stopping sales as needed. I suspect they might even have reduced demand during peak tourist visiting periods if it overlaps with our own summer vacations since less commuters will be going to and from work.
Swapfiets is a good suggestion if you want a decent bicycle but not buy one, I suspect it's only really a good option for a whole month or ideally longer. Not a relatively short stay in the country of let's say a few days/weeks. Seems like a bit of a hassle to get a contract for one and then cancel it afterwards, probably comes with high fees too. I don't like their bicycles though, they all seem to have the inconvenient rack at the front only and nothing at the back.
And you're right that parking at home is generally handled pretty well, I even know some someone who actively use 5 bicycles:
- fancy racing bicycle
- ebike for everyday and longer casual trips
- 2 reasonable state "stationsfietsen", one for home and the nearby trainstation, the other for the frequent destination trainstation (their habit started before OV fiets became available and travel between the locations is frequent enough to not have the bicycle removed for not being used)
- a "kroegfiets", pub/bar bicycle essentially an even crappier one than the regular stationsfiets for short trips while still meeting the minimum legal requirements when it comes to lights and a bell just in case they are stopped on the way home by police while riding it drunk.
You don’t necessarily have to a have Dutch address to receive a OV chipcard. I’m from Luxembourg currently studying in the Netherlands and I received my OV chipcard at my Lux. home address 2 weeks before moving in.
@@edipires15 well, maybe it works with Benelux addresses. Not the case for other countries addresses
@@extrastuff9463 It can't be sent do other European countries though.
You can have a foreign IBAN. Mine worked just fine.
I use my bike during the week for my shopping + work bag, on the weekend for a large bag and various objects and occasionally for moving my French horn. That's why I have a removable bicycle bag, and a different rack at the front and back.
My mother has always had a bicycle with a detachable bicycle trailer, child seats and a rack. That bike was heavy and sturdy. She also had a light bicycle with little luggage space if she did not have to transport children and no weekly shopping for a family of seven.
If you use your bicycle a lot, it is nice to buy your own bicycle with your own budget, adapt it to your own wishes and maintain it for your own use. For example: as a teenager I had a very good and sturdy bicycle that cost a few hundred, but never had to be repaired, despite my shameless use of it. Now I have a cheap bike, because I leave my bike at the train station of a big city every weekend, I don't use an extra lock and I don't want to spend a euro every week for secured and covered parking. Furthermore, bicycle maintenance is very cheap and simple (as long as you don't keep putting off purchasing a set of wrenches for the first time in your life).
I would definitely be able to rent bikes. And I might find myself in a scenario some day when I rent an electric cargo bike (as I don't have a car) or a folding bike if I were visiting the countryside by transit, but I can't really imagine any other scenarios where I'd rent one.
I personally don't want these companies over here because many of these companies are the same companies that invaded cities with their scooters and the disrespectful way that they introduced their dockless vehicles into cities and didn't seem to care about what impact their vehicles and the way that their users treated and left their vehicles has soured me on them.
Instead I think that the OV fiets system could be expanded, instead of having OV fiets only available at train stations they could expand the system to have ov fiets stations at every major bus stop (Bus stops where say more than 4 lines converge, at each neighborhood's shopping "square" (pretty much every neighborhood in NL has this spot where a bunch of shops are grouped together.), in front of schools, parks and any major location like these. Open the system up for tourist to use, since I honestly don't know why they don't allow tourists to use the system, except maybe they are worried for their safety. And then finally have the option to pay for shorter trips and a subscription system. Many people that need to use a bike to get to work after they take a train to another city will simply buy another another bike and keep it parked at the station of that other city, but it would be nice to not have to do that and avoid the possibility of arriving at the station and finding out you had a flat or that some punk kids let out the air out of your tires, but for that to be a option it needs to be well priced because as you mentioned we can buy a second hand bike here for under 100 Euros.
The ideal for bike share is to be publicly-owned, like in Montreal and Toronto, where they're owned by the city.
I think they don't allow tourists to use it, because bike rental shops are more expensive.. So it's a way to make a lot more money off of these tourists. They know tourists will most likely want to bike, so that drives up the price. OV-fiets is for small time use, so it's less expensive. It's a public service for Dutch people and not made for tourists... but maybe there's a way around it, if tourists can order an OV-kaart in advance...
I don't use bikeshare personally (I don't like the bike models available in my local system), but I'm glad the system exists, and I hope it expands along with cycling culture in my area!
I live in the Netherlands and I do see some use cases for bike share :) Especially now we have a newborn who I can't yet safely transport on my city bike, after dropping her off at daycare it would be useful to grab a bike there. And sometimes taking a bike to a store and then public transit back with the unwieldy things I bought would also be nice.
However, I do also have some issues with bike share from my experience with it in North America and London. I'm not so worried about not finding a bike, but we had a few situations where the destination parking was full. Especially if you have to pay once your time frame is up it made it sort of stressful to find another dock, not to mention you had to move away from where you wanted to go to do so. They are less comfortable than my own bikes and sometimes the docking stations would error. Of course all of these problems are relatively minor.
But I actually think one of the bigger issues with implementation of these in the Netherlands is that the potential scale of users is so big that it might become unmanageable. Imagine a few thousand cyclists arriving at a train station and all wanting to use the bike share from there to the office buildings.
For this reason, you're also not allowed to take your bike on buses in the Netherlands. It would be helpful, yes, but it would disrupt the service too much with how many cyclists there are. You could of course invest enormously in bike share to make it work on a huge scale, but this type of investment would do a lot more good in public transport, IMO.
I totally agree on the OV-fiets for foreigners, by the way! It's wrong to exclude people based on their address and it would be very useful for quite a lot of visitors. But of course, foreign visitors don't typically have representation in government...
My first experience with bikeshare was in Beijing, visiting my brother who was teaching in Dalian at the time; he had an account with a dockless bikeshare company. It was convenient being able to park anywhere, and of course we're the sort to put them where bicycles are clearly meant to be parked; but then, sometimes it was hard to find any nearby, or maybe there's just one, and maybe it's working and maybe it's busted.
A little while after that, San Francisco started allowing dockless bikeshare and scooter companies (like Lime) to set up - and it was a disaster. People just left their vehicles laying across the sidewalk and/or in the street - exhibiting about the same amount of courtesy and awareness as cagers.
We've since instituted a docked system, in a public-private type of thing (I'd prefer it be entirely under Muni) and it uses the regional transit Clipper card so that's nice. I actually haven't used it myself, despite there being a docking station right across the street from me, because everything I need on the daily & weekly is within 5 easy blocks of my apartment, with the bigger neighborhood being I guess a kilometer down the hill, and since I'm usually schlepping what I bought back up, and the bikeshare bikes' "racks" are a joke, I just take my chances on catching a bus back up the hill (at 20-minute intervals, also a joke). And of course if I want to go further afield, I just take transit.
The other disadvantage of our system here, that I'm pleased to hear isn't the case in Montreal, is that we've got a "zone" system, where you pay more to go outside of a given "zone", or it just doesn't let you park it outside the "zone". (I had the latter happen to me when I used a dockless bikeshare in San Diego once - I had to ride back into the "zone" to make it lock & signal that the ride was complete.) tbh that's got a vibe not unlike what the weirdos think "15-minute cities" means. I really prefer the model described in this video.
Thank you for the video, that was very informative !
You missed some of the biggest cons of Bike Share:
1. Sometimes the nearest docking station is empty
2. Sometimes the nearest docking station to your destination is full (happened to me in Chicago at the train station, almost missed the train as I had to run back).
3. Sometimes there is no near docking station (looking at you SW minneapolis).
Also in Minneapolis - the non electric bikes were being phased out for the ebikes, which cost around the same as an uber for a similar length trip lol.
Like we mentioned in the video, "We’ve had good experiences here in Montreal - it’s rare to have trouble finding a bike or to get a bike that’s out of service".
My son is a grad student in the Netherlands and rents a bike with a monthly charge. If the bike needs repair or is stolen it will be replaced.
I'm in Boston,MA, USA and I own my own bike. I use BlueBikes nearly every day anyway. One big reason is that storage is a big issue in Boston--any bike storage will take space away from other road users. In the Netherlands, a lot of that public bike storage already exists, while here, it doesn't exist. If I'm commuting to work or getting errands done, its easier to use the bike share. It also means I pay less every year on my own bike's maintenance, even if I ride it for more miles every week.
I use bike share in a small Irish city. €10 euro a year and first 30 minutes of each ride free which covers 95% of rides. For longer rides I just stop at a the next docking station put it in then take it back out for anther 30 minutes. I think ive only paid an additional 50 cent twice in like 5 years
Took my bike to the bike shop yesterday, came back by Bixi. Would have been a 45 minutes walk home otherwise! Love it!
most bike (repair) shops in The Netherlands give you a bike to lone for the duration of you repairs.
so you leave your bike to be repaired, get a bike from the shop to use while the repair is ongoing, and when the repair is done you swap your loner back for your own bike. free of charge.
Netherlands has the best bike sharing system - Donkey republic. Those are free standing bikes all around the city which you can take and drop very easily (not in all cities yet though, in Rotterdam for example). Another one popular is Swapfiets, but there they give you personal bike for monthly subscription and provide free and superfast maintanance/repairs for it or even swap it for new one if needed. On the train stations across the country you also can rent a bike (OV-fiets) but that one you have to return to the same place
Simple reason: we Dutch are used to have our bike with us everywhere. Like bringing a bag. When you use a bus or car to go into the center, you also never need a bike, because the centers are small and walkable. I hated the use rental bikes in London: empty racks at the start, full racks on return; took so much time. Theft is strongly reduced with many (new) free indoor parkings in most city centers and all railway stations.
you completely miss the point about bike-sharing as we know it in North America
I commute by bike 5 miles each way in Seattle daily. I’d say at this point 2/3rds of the other people I see riding are on bike/scooter shares. While it definitely balloons with tourists in the summer - I see lots of apparent commuters taking them - even at 7am on a rainy day.
We have this bike share system in Manchester UK (Beryl Bikes) although ours is more pay as you ride or buy a set of rides. I used it almost daily in the Spring and Summer but eventually purchased my own bike because I enjoyed cycling so much. There were some downsides to the service that were mainly caused by vandalism and misuse so sometimes I would go to a bike bay and the bike would not unlock but the app would show me as using the bike so I would have to live chat the bike staff who were always great btw. The issue from what I could see was due to misuse and tampering of the bike or bike bay by kids(or even some grownups) trying to rig the bikes for free rides. Sometimes all the bikes were in use so I could not do my last mile to work and would have to get an Uber but most of all, the service wasn’t available where I live so I would have to get public transport or do a half hour walk to the nearest bike bay thus I use my own bike now. I still use the service though to complete that last mile to work whenever I’m going to work via public transport and I always recommend it to my colleagues who don’t drive. I’ve heard there’s more bikes than people in the Netherlands so don’t think bike share is a issue for them.
As an American who moved from SF to Utrecht, there are moments where it seemed like it would be nice to have, but I think the majority of use cases are met here one way or another. Utrecht and Amersterdam do have dockless bikeshare (Donkey Republic in Amsterdam, Tier in Utrecht and other cities) in addition to OVFiets (my partner has unlimited access through work), as well as cargo bike share (which will soon allow one way trips). There's plenty of bikes available to rent from shops as well as Swapfiets. Not to mention if you're visiting someone there's a decent chance they have an extra bike laying around.
Bikeshare in SF was a nightmare - it was a monopoly, absurdly expensive, low availability, poorly maintained. Every place I tried to use it North America it was roughly got the job done, but a similar condition. I think the concept works in theory, but most places that recently picked up bikeshare got it from one the VC-backed firms, which just don't offer much on top of the various systems already here.
Bikesharing was invented in the Netherlands in the 1960's (Wittefietsenplan). And there are still bikeshare options in the Netherlands, but they are not used as often as in other countries. Bikeshare is expensive compared to your own cheap citybike. In a city like Rotterdam you can chose between Baqme (Cargobike), Cargoroo (Cargobike) and Donkey Republic or go by scooter (way more used) with Felyx, Gosharing, Lime or Check. There have been more options but they didn't survive. All these options are a little expensive and only usefull if you have no alternatives. The OV fiets is often cheaper. By the way, a company like Donkey Republic is available in around 100 cities worldwide (4 in the Netherlands, compared to 16 in Denmark and way more in Belgium), but they have about the same number of bikes in total as there are OV fietsen in the Netherlands. The options for cargobikes are also used for carrying around kids and dogs. And finally you can take your own bike in the metro in Rotterdam outside of rush hours.
Although maybe less than you would expect in a country wich is generally as cycling friendly as the Netherlands, we are not a total void of bikesharing systems. For instance Donkey Republic operates in several cities. There are also several operators of shared mopeds. And my favorite is the existance of shared cargo-bikes, which makes car-free living even more comfortable and easy.
You still need to pick up the bike from the rack(if it is not close) and bring it to another rack when finished. A lot of students have one bike for the ride to the train station and one for the ride to the end point (like college) even some commuters have that. Theft is not really an issue if your bike isn't new, so a lot of bikes look like crap but still work perfectly. Also most people can do the simple maintenance or know someone in the family who can. And used bikes are really cheap.... Cheaper than your 'cheap service ' for a year...
I know that some Bike Share/E Scooter sharing companies like Lime and Neuron use a free flowing method where the payment system is on the bike/e scooter itself and that once you're done you just leave it to the side.
There's pros and cons to the free flowing vs the bike station method namely flexibility but the free flowing bikes and scooters can litter the sidewalk (not as bad as on street car parking but still) but from what I heard, most people (myself included) prefer the bike station method.
Also, with the fixed bike rack/station method, you can pay traditionally (depends on each one of course) with cash meaning that for people without electronic payment (on a debit card that can't do online purchases), they can still use the bikes.
Good video and I do love the bike share in my city, but not mentioning Swapfiets is a bit of a miss. It’s a cheap (€17-20/month) alternative to North America bike share and is in most places. Although, if your bike is stolen, it’s €60. Personally, I would love Swapfiets in the US as well as bike share.
I'm curious, what are the main use cases for Swapfiets?
For me, I am here for 2 months and I use it as a cheap bike rental. I use for all my biking needs within a city. If you move to a different city, you can just return it and transfer to a different city. But I’m a bit of an abnormal case. When I arrived in Utrecht, it was the beginning of the school year, and there were tons of students getting them. I feel like if it was available in the US, I would use it similar to how I use bike share. Sometimes I don’t want to store my more expensive bike for a long period and would like a less risky option that I can ride door to door without having to dock it or hope that a good bike is available. But the other major advantage is that if something breaks, they will either come and fix it or you can just swap it out for a new one. There’s an app that you can schedule them to come to you or bring it back to them (your choice) to swap it out. They are also typically very close to the train station.
Admittedly, it’s supposed to be a longer term thing and it is discounted if you pay yearly.
@@OhTheUrbanity I would say foreign students (or other folk) who stay for a couple of months in a town and buggers who are too lazy/clumsy to repare a flat tyre and don't make the numbers to see how expensive Swapfiets really is . For €220 might buy 2 second hand bikes each year.
I have to say €10 for free 45min use of share bikes sounds really good, provided there are enough, nearby, docking stations !! I think there is not enough critical mass for a widespread share bike system. Apart from A'dam and R'dam there are really not many towns where people would consider this in their hometown. (And those two cities are not that big ..).
Most cities are just not sprawled enough, not even The Hague, I think. People will use their own bike ...So the system mostly would basically serve people visiting other cities in the Randstad ( or elsewhere ) .
I could use such this year I have to go by train&bus to a village. But you don't see this service in the country side..
In Utrecht this June I was surprised to see Swapfiets being maybe 10-20% of bikes. Once I knew to look for the blue tire I saw them everywhere. I would have gotten one but I was only there a week so I just used a bike shop. NJB did a video where he talked about using Swapfiets for a couple months. He rode his bike to the station and then parked his Swapfiets at the other station to get to work.
These bikes are often mistreated. I rather prefer to have my own bike and occasionally take transit.
The thing is you need to think about when you are not in your own city, sure in your own city you can just use your own bike, but what if you are in another city? Will you have struggled to take your personal bike with you?Is that even an option? Many people might not want to do that as it can be a unpleasant experience, so if your own personal bike isn't available in that other city, what do you do? What solutions do you think are good?
@@Arjay404 Transit and I took my bicycle on a high speed train recently.
@@Arjay404the problem is that in this video they are trying to promote bike-sharing as an alternative for commuters. However, in the Netherlands, commuters using bike + public transport would certainly have a second bike in the city where they work, either an OV-fiets whose costs are covered by their employer, a long-term rental like a swapfiets, or a personal bike.
Also one of their arguments is that the subscription price would be low. Well, the price is low where they live because it is subsidized, that wouldn't be the case in the Netherlands. Why would city councils use taxpayer money to subsidize bike-sharing programs that would be used occasionally by a few people? Moreover, that subscription is only to have access to the shared bikes, not for actual use. And it would certainly not be free for 30 minutes. Just taking these points into account would make a hypothetical bike-sharing system less appealing than for example renting an OV-fiets, let alone the other points (space for bike-sharing docks, being dependent on the location of the docks, etc)
Curious your thoughts on docked vs dockless bikeshare. I could see ova fiets being nice because you know your bike will still be there after work. We have a semi-docked system where there are hubs, but you don’t have to return a bike to one at the end (it’s cheaper if you do return them though). In SF I had issues riding to work because I would get there and the rack would be full. I would end up riding halfway back to the train to find a dock. On the other hand, knowing there’s a dock nearby is nice because there will most likely be a bike to pick up.
I used Citibikes in NYC and various dockless outfits here in Seattle and prefer dockless. It's really annoying when some idiot leaves a share bike in the middle of the bike lane or sidewalk, tbf, but that's pretty rare since they make you take a picture. I only run into issues with them being terribly parked like once every 6 months at this point. If I'm going to take the light rail somewhere, I just check the two apps to make sure there are a couple at my end stop. As a user of them, dockless is definitely preferable. You don't get a guarantee of a bike being there in either case (and all spots where there would be docks are spots where they'd be redistributing bikes anyway overnight or throughout the day for places like light rail stops so I don't count that as an advantage), but you get way more usability for parking, which means you often have much better chance of having your bike there when you want to grab it for the ride home if you're in a weird spot. If you have enough density of docks like NYC probably does at this point (I was there like 8 years ago), it's not a huge deal, but I remember being annoyed a lot of the time that I'd walked multiple blocks to find them empty or had the same issue with you of docks being full. For less dense cities like SF and Seattle, I feel like dockless is the way to go...
dockless systems are a nightmare.
people are selfish so they will just park the bike as close to their destination as possible no matter how much it annoys/inconveniences other people.
with those dockless systems you end up with bikes everywhere, cluttering the streets, parks and sidewalks.
that's one of the reasons The Netherlands doesn't like bike share systems (or those electric scooter)
IMHO as a Canadian watching Dutch VIDS - my thought is that the usage would be VERY LOW compared to the LEVEL of build out the netwrk requires to function and with OV-fiet being part of the "public transit" network the shown model works "better" for commuters as there WILL BE a bike waiting for your homeward trip as it is "YOURS" VS a share bike that likely is NOT available when EVEYBODY is taking one at the SAME time and the AMOUNT of labour to MOVE that number of bikes to be ready for the RUSH home / to work
OV-fiets only HAS to make sure all the bikes get returned to the CORRECT station which I assume is BILLED to the renter if NOT
When I visit the Netherlands I just rent a bike from a local bike shop or sometimes the city rents bikes from the guarded parkings.
I think I paid like 10 euro a day in Breda, had even the possibility to rent a bakfiets.