Bringing Bike Sharing to the 'Burbs?

Peter Dalos, operations manager of the Bubi system, presents at a spring, 2015 public hearing on bike-sharing in Szentendre.

At the Regional Environmental Center, we've just completed a feasibility study on bringing bike-sharing to Szentendre. The result: there's strong popular support for a scheme, and the optimal option would be an e-bike, or pedelec, system with 11 docking points scattered about town.

The nitty gritty of the study, funded by the CIVITAS Initiative, is summed up here.

But I also had some thoughts about it. On the positive side, we had outstanding involvement from City Hall: four or five staff members (including finance, infrastructure and communications experts) attended all of our meetings, and one event was attended by Szentendre's mayor. We also had the involvement of BKK, because one of our original ideas was that Szentendre's system could be an extension of the Bubi system in Budapest. It was one of eight alternatives that we explored.

As you can see in the study, the public was very supportive, with 76.1 percent of survey respondents fully or strongly in favour of introducing bike-sharing in Szentendre, and nearly half saying they would use the service at least occasionally.

Szentendre residents at the spring, 2015 public hearing raised several questions about the proposed scheme.

Despite the positives, it's an open question whether City Hall will take the next step and invest in bike sharing. One thing we learned during the study is that Szentendre, despite its beautiful historic centre and prime location on the riverbank just north of the capital city, is quite cash poor. Cities in Hungary rely on an industrial tax for most of their revenue and Szentendre is more of a residential, bedroom community than a place for business (the wealth of ice-cream shops notwithstanding). So there's considerable reluctance to make investments in anything viewed as non-essential.

There are ways to solve this. There are funding programmes that could help with the investment and there are opportunities for corporate sponsorship which could cover at least part of the operational costs. We even learned of a potential scheme organised by a passenger boat service that would implement bike sharing in riverside communities as a service for their customers.

Beyond that, there's the possibility to go with a low-tech, less expensive version of bike sharing. Although an e-bike system with automated docking stations is attractive, especially given Szentendre's hilly surroundings, the city could implement bike-sharing with standard bikes that could be rented out from a space at the city's HEV stop. The investment would be quite small -- just the bikes, a chip-card reader and a rudimentary shop. You would need staff to run it, as well. But this would be a very handy service for tourists coming up to the city by HEV or Volan bus, and in time it could be expanded and adapted to the needs of commuters (the Dutch OV-fiets system, run by the national rail company, is a good model).

In any case, we've handed the study over to City Hall, and the ball's in their court. There's evident will at City Hall to make Szentendre more bike and pedestrian friendly. It took some tentative steps in that direction this summer, and in our study we've argued that bike-sharing is a powerful tool to promote cycling -- not just on shared bikes, but on any bikes. We're hoping City Hall takes heart.

Bike Sharing Boosts Property Value

As reported by several outlets (including here and here) the Bubi bike share system has recently been expanded  by 22 new docking stations, bringing the total number of locations to more than 90.

Most of this  expansion was thanks to a contract penalty that BKK enforced against the technical supplier led by ICT company T-Systems Hungary: Due to the delayed rollout of Bubi in spring of last year, the T-Systems consortia had to compensate BKK with HUF 180 million (EUR 589,000).  Rather than paying cash, the providers agreed with BKK to add the new docking stations instead.

But that doesn't account for 100 percent of the expansion. One of the new stations, specifically the one at Corvin Sétány housing and shopping development, was financed by the property's owner. As such, it becomes the first Bubi docking station to be paid for with private money.

This represents a new possibility for system expansion, and a new opportunity for business people interested in the cyclist market. Bubi will install a docking station on your property for a fee, and will take care of its operation and maintenance thereafter. A large station such as the one at Corvin Sétány, with spaces for 30 bikes, along with a rental terminal capable of selling tickets with a chip card reader, is yours for HUF 6.83 million (EUR 21,700). After signing on the dotted line,  the station will be installed in seven to eight months.

Why would someone shell out for such a price? According to János Berki, who headed the Corvin Corvin Sétány project for Futureal, a key consideration for the whole Corvin project was sustainability, with an accent on people and livability. This naturally included cycling facilities, including ample bike racks and changing rooms and showers for office spaces.

Berki didn't mention the docking station's impact on property value, but this may well have been an ulterior motive. According to new research, proximity to public bike sharing stations postively impacts on residential property value. The study, focusing on Montreal, Quebec, showed that for every single bike-share station located in a neighborhood,

"... $700 in property value is added to surrounding houses. Considering that, in Montreal, homes in a bike-sharing friendly neighborhood are, on average, within range of just over 12 stations, the value grows by almost $9,000; that's a 2.7 percent increase in sale value solely by virtue of living near a bike-sharing system."

This makes sense to me. Public bikes not only make a neighbourhood more accessible to more people, they contribute to its appeal as a fashionable, modern quarter.

Meanwhile in Dopeville ... the blog kerekagy recently reported on a "Facebook protest" among regulars of the Matyas Pince, a restaurant at Marcius 5 ter that specialises in traditional Hungarian fare. A Bubi docking station was placed in front of the eatery's entrance, provoking complaints about how it detracted from the historic elegance of the place. Realising that the Matyas Pince menu would of course be heavy on pork, this is very much a case of pearls before swine.

Public hearing supports bike-share project

Szentendre Mayor Miklós Verseghi-Nagy got Saturday's hearing started.

Our first public hearing on the idea of introducing bike sharing to Szentendre went off over the weekend with mostly supportive, positive comments from participants.
About 20 people attended, fewer than we'd hoped, although it was asking a lot for people to come to a boardroom discussion at 10:15 on a beautiful Saturday morning. And besides, we're also offering an easier online means of giving input. As of April 28, 220 people had filled in our short, online questionnaire (deadline is May 10).

The meeting was held as a side event to the REC's annual Earth Day celebrations, which this year attracted a couple hundred or more visitors. The mayor was on hand and, because the bike-share gathering in the REC's library constituted the biggest concentration of guests at 10 a.m., our side event became the venue for his welcoming remarks.

Peter Dalos, the operations manager of Budapest's bike sharing system, Bubi, kicked things off by giving an overview of the bike sharing concept, as well as the particulars of the Bubi system. His presence added a useful dose of gravitas to the event, with Bubi representing a "serious" investment of EUR 3.5 million and also a well-publicised Hungarian success story. Very popular and widely used, it has suffered little of the theft and vandalism that critics had predicted.

REC intern Attila Katona, who's heading up the Szentendre study, laid out the preliminary case for bringing bike sharing to Szentendre, including its benefits to the environmment, for the tourist trade and its potential usefulness to commuters.

Public comments on Saturday were supportive, although, as expected they began with skeptical questions about basic cycling conditions in Szentendre. Road 11, the high-traffic thoroughfare connecting Szentendre to Budapest and communities on the Danube Bend, has long been a sore point with bike riders. Cycling isn't even allowed there and no bike lane or path exists over most of its stretch through town.

Szentendre's hilly terrain; the cobblestone streets in the city centre; and the awkward connection between the HEV station and the Old Town were other mentioned challenges.

These were fair enough points, and it was an opportunity to present City Hall's other measures regarding cycling. Concerning Road 11, the city recently won an appeal to the Hungarian Public Road Authority to remove the ban on cycling. It's uncertain how cycling will be managed on the road, but planning is underway. Regarding the awkward HEV connection to Old Town (currently a dingy underpass beneath Road 11, with steep flights of stairs on either end, this will be addressed with a pending investment that will include a surface crossing over Road 11. For the hills, there's the possibility of including electric bikes or pedelecs to the Szentendre bike share fleet.

These are all important points, however Attila underscored that the scope of our study covers bike sharing, not general transport improvements. The hope is that bike sharing will stimulate higher levels of cycling in town, which will stimulate political pressure for bike-friendly improvements, which will stimulate more cycling, etc.

This was the case with the Bubi project in Budapest: Before Bubi launched in the summer of 2014, the city implemented scores of small bike-friendly improvements to the streets within the system's area: contraflow lanes, new signage, bike racks and so on. This was also the case in London, with the blue "bicycle superhighways" following quickly on the heels of the Boris bikes. Barcelona was another example of a city that began bike-friendly improvements by launching a bike-share system.

The takeaway is that cities become bike friendly step by step -- rarely in a single massive project (with Seville, Spain, being the only exception I can think of).

Most of Saturday's guests seemed to understand this, and it was my impression they simply wanted us to understand the wider context of our project. Working and cycling in Szentendre for the last 12 years, and having been pulled over by police multiple times for cycling on Road 11, I can definitely say, I feel the pain!

A final public comment on Saturday was a vote of support for our "low-cost" option for bike sharing. At present, we're looking at two different models as the basis for the Szentendre system. The first is the multi-station model provided by Bubi and the majority of other modern bike-share systems. We figure that Szentendre is big enough to support a system encompassing three to 10 stations: one at the HEV stop, one or two on the Duna korzo, perhaps one at the Skanzen, and so on. We've posted an online collaborative map to see where potential users would like to see stations.

The other model is that of OV-Fiets in the Netherlands: It involves just a single station (in the Netherlands, it's always a train stop) and users check out bikes from and return them to this station. Rentals can be longer term -- a few hours or even a full day. This is a key difference to multi-nodal systems, which encourage short trips of less than 30 minutes. A big advantage of the single-node approach is that it is potentially much cheaper and simpler to implement. Although it can be automated with high-tech equipment and contactless cards, it can also be designed as a conventional bike rental, with the only necessary ingredients being a human attendant, a shed full of bikes, and a chip-card reader.

The comment on Saturday was that it might be best for Szentendre to begin with a low-tech, low-cost system, and see where it goes from there.

One thing that would be missing would be the connection to Bubi. At project's start, we had a vision of Szentendre hosting an extension of Bubi, with the same technology, same branding and same user card. I don't want to give up on this idea. However, it could be that this project, too, will have to be carried out step by step by step.

Need Your Input on Szentendre Bike Sharing

As mentioned in a previous post, Szentendre is studying the feasibility of introducing a bike-sharing scheme and this week, an online survey was launched to gauge public interest.

The short questionnaire asks you whether you would use the scheme and, if so, how often, during what seasons, at what times of the day, for what price and so on. The city needs input from as many people as possible -- including weekend visitors and tourists, so you don't have to live in Szentendre to take part.

Questionnaire is here -- you can switch to an English version at the top of the opening page. Please take five minutes to fill it out.

Parallel to this, there's a collaborative mapping tool where you can suggest locations for docking stations for the system or comment on already suggested spots.

If you'd like to learn more about the Szentendre bike-sharing idea and comment on it in-person, a public hearing will be held on the topic this Saturday (April 25).

What: Public hearing on introduction of bike sharing in Szentendre
Time: 10:15-11:15 a.m., Saturday April 25
Place: REC Zero Emission Conference Center; 9-11 Ady Endre ut; 2000 Szentendre
Language: Hungarian

The hearing is held in conjunction with the REC's annual Earth Day celebrations at the Szentendre head office of the Regional Environmental Center. This is a kid-friendly, open-invitation event in the REC's arboretum. The Earth Day event runs 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Szentendre City Hall Turns Bike-Friendly

In 2014, a service road opened next the the Duna Korzó that provides for car-free cycling with a view.

Szentendre's local government has apparently turned a corner on the subject of utility cycling. City Hall wants to make the town more bike-friendly, and it's reaching out to cyclists to find out how to do it.

This is a big change from five years ago, when some local activists and I did a 'hotspot' analysis of local cycling infrastructure. We recommended some basic remedies to the then mayor, but he told us flat out that nothing could be done that cost money.

But Szentendre has a new mayor, 47-year-old Miklós Verseghi-Nagy, and the winds have changed. My company,  the Regional Enivironmental Center, recently initiated a feasibility study on introducing bike sharing here. Just a week after the study's kick off  at Szentendre City Hall, we were invited back to provide input on another bike-related matter: the installation of public bike racks around town.

Our colleague Attila Katona attended a meeting with a couple municipal officers, the owner of a local bike shop and representatives of the local chapter of the Hungarian Cyclists Club. The results were better than we'd hoped.  The main outcomes:

• The city agreed to install large portable bike racks (14-28 bike capacity) during the 5-6 warmest months of the year on the main square (Főtér) and the northern and southern ends of the riverfront cafe and restaurant strip (Duna Korzó). These could later become locations of permanent bike-share docking stations.
  
  
• The city will take steps to improve bike parking at the Szentendre HÉV station. Although transport operator BKK controls the property, City Hall will lobby for the changes.
• City Hall also wants to ensure bicycle parking is provided in front of high-traffic local businesses (grocery stores, banks, restaurants, etc.) The city might encourage this by offering subsidies, but may even compel owners to provide a certain level of parking based on the size of their properties (similar to the existing codes on car parking).

In general, city leadership is enthused about making Szentendre more bike and pedestrian friendly. A big first step will be expansion of the car-free city centre by banning cars during the summer on the korzó.

It's also eager to lift the ban of cycling on Route 11, the main north-south thoroughfare through town. Until now, cycling's been prohibited on Route 11 by the national road authority, Magyar Közút. At the urging of local activists, City Hall appealed to the authority to lift the ban and the petition has apparently succeeded.

According to the information Attila received this week, the legal barrier's been lifted and now it's a matter of following through with whatever signage and infrastructure that's needed. And their may be some personal motivation here: Szentendre's Vice-Mayor Dorottya Gyürk is a cyclist, and admits to a habit of riding illegally on Route 11.

Of course, to make Szentendre truly bike friendly, investments will be needed, and this is where many politicians balk. Even so, there's been a big attitude shift toward cycling at Szentendre City Hall, and this is great news.

Study explores bike sharing in Szentendre

Péter Dalos, the technical manager of Bubi; Gabor Heves, REC; Mónika Horváth, coordinator of the Szentendre City Architect's Office; Attila Katona, REC; Tamás Kollár of Óbuda University; János Virágh, representative of
the City Services Company;  and me, also REC.

A few days ago, we kicked off a project that could potentially result in a bike-sharing scheme for Szentendre.

The project is a feasibility study, co-funded with EUR 7,500 from the European Commission's CIVITAS Initiative. It will take six months, including a community meeting to gauge local interest, and conclude with a report containing recommendations and a business plan.

The kick-off meeting took place at Szentendre City Hall and involved 10 people: four staff from Szentendre City Hall, the technical manager of the Bubi bike share system in Budapest, a student from the Óbuda University who's both learning from and assisting us, and four staff (me included) from the Regional Environmental Center, based in Szentendre.

Szentendre, 20 km north of downtown Budapest, is a bedroom community. More than half the town's working population of about 10,000 people, commute every morning to Budapest. A line of the suburban rail system, the HEV, offers a non-car option for Budapest-bound commuters, but on the Szentendre end, there's no public transport option for the "last mile" from end station to home.

A bike-share system could be an effective, and relatively inexpensive, way to solve this. And if the system was cleverly integrated with the HEV and Bubi (the Budapest bike-share system launched last summer), you could have an environment-friendly, healthy transport option door to door.

A full report is here. 

I gave an introduction to the project, in English. My colleague Gabor Heves interpreted in Hungarian, and seemed to  improve on the substance of the talk while he was at it. Thank you, Gabor!

Bubi's Péter Dalos (right) and Tamás Kollár (not pictured) went to the trouble of bringing two Bubi bikes up from Budapest. Both Mónika Horváth (left) János Virágh (center) took them on test rides after our meeting.

Bubi to be enhanced

Budapest's new bike-share system, Mol Bubi, will soon be extended with 30 new docking stations and 300 bikes, according to the news site, Index.

Though the system opened just a month ago, the city transport organisation BKK believes the expansion is justified due to the better-than-expected uptake by the travelling public. According to Index, the green bikes were checked out 120,000 during the first month -- which comes out to 4,000 rides per day, or about 4 per bike per day.

Financing is no barrier. Because of the many technical delays in Bubi's trial phase -- the public launch was a half year behind schedule -- the private consortium delivering the system is liable for HUF 180 million (EUR 589,000) in contractual penalties. BKK and the T Systems-led contractor agreed to settle the matter with a system expansion.

According to Index, locations for the new docking stations have  to be selected and agreed with the affected districts. Even so, the new stations SHOULD go live within six months (blogger's emphasis.)
Envisioned locations on the Pest side are:  János Pál pápa tér, the Corvin sétány and the Millenniumi City Center. In Buda, they can be expected at Kosztolányi Dezső tér and near the Millenáris.

Bubis are out -- finally!

Photo stolen from the Urbanista blog.

At long last, Budapest's new bike share system has shed its training wheels.

Bubi made its full public debut this morning with 1,100 bikes available from 76 docking stations around downtown, Margit Island and a few places in Buda on or near the Danube bank.

Now, anyone interested in using one can do so. For the grand opening, the price of entry is just HUF 100 (about EUR 0.30). This buys you a seven-day ticket, which is obtainable at a Bubi docking point. You'll need to bring a bank card and mobile phone.

Long-term options are also available. A year pass is HUF 12,000 or just HUF 6,000 for those who have a BKK public transport pass. There are other options, as well.

The system launch ends a long, frustrating period of internal and public testing that started back in April. The system was plagued with bugs, mainly IT things related to the rental mechanism and the on-board electronic lock. Just a week ago, there was a reported problem with the docking station bank card reader.

But a final round of public trials involving some 1,000 volunteers ended last week, and the Budapest Transport Centre today opened it up to everyone.
 
In our family, we all have our own bikes and I've wondered whether I'll actually participate in Bubi. But I spotted an attractive feature in the system: With a single long-term pass (Bubi kartya), you can check out up to four bikes at a time. This would come in handy when we have visitors and need some extra bikes. Rather than having to keep a fleet of our own guest bikes, or having to arrange long-term rentals from a Budapest shop (limited weekend hours), we could all walk down to the nearest Bubi station (5-10 minutes from our front door), check out some bikes and take off.

The Bubi bikes are heavy and pokey (like shared bikes everywhere), but for short rides around town, they're fine. I think people will soon come to appreciate how this new mode of transport can make their lives easier and more fun.
 

Bubi rounds up 1,000 guinea pigs in 1 hour

I just got tired of posting pics of Bubi bikes.

The internal testing phase for Bubi is finally over and now begins the public trial.
City transport company BKK has rounded up 1,000 volunteers for testing, and on Thursday, they will start a two-week trial to see how the system performs in real-world conditions with a large base of clients.

After the trial, each volunteer user will be asked to fill out an evaluation questionnaire, with results feeding into a final refinements of the system before it opens to the wider public.
BKK apparently had an easy time identifying volunteers. It posted an announcement promising a free six-month Bubi pass (value of about EUR 30) to anyone who would take part. The requirements were that they use the system at least 10 times during a two-week trial, and follow through with the evaluation.

Electronic registration opened Monday morning at http://molbubi.bkk.hu/ and within one hour BKK had their thousand guinea pigs.

Not surprising, as the bikes have been out on the streets since the first week of April, while usage has been restricted to a small number of handpicked volunteers in an internal test. I've followed the process quite closely and therefore understood that the system hadn't officially opened yet. But I've heard from several friends and acquaintances who had attempted to check out Bubi bikes, and then walked away frustrated thinking they simply didn't correctly interpret the instructions on the Bubi terminals. This goes down to BKK's perplexing policy of not communicating during the trial phase. I can only assume it was because the organisation's leadership was embarrassed about the system's problems.

As was widely reported, Bubi's registration and check-out system had a number of bugs, and the envisioned "brief testing period" stretched out more than three months.

According to the kerekagy blog, T-Systems, the lead partner in the consortium that's implementing Bubi, is liable for a HUF 120 million penalty for the system's tardy launch.

Bubi's testing phase testing patience

Everyone's curious about the Bubi bikes.

On its homepage this week, the Budapest Transport Center (BKK) acknowledged serious problems with the testing phase of the MOL Bubi bike-sharing system, now in two months delay past its April 7 launch date.

Bugs in the check-out technology have prevented testers from removing and reconnecting bicycles at the system docking stations, and BKK isn't satisfied with efforts to fix the problems. The company says it may be forced to cancel its contract with the system providers if they don't get Bubi rolling soon.

The telecom company T Systems leads the implementing consortium, with other partners being the Csepel bike maker and the Germany-based Nextbike bike-share firm.

According to reports on Index.hu and the kerekagy blog, the MOL Bubi system is challenged because it brings together a number of advanced technological solutions (e.g. touch-screen dock terminals, on-board computers on the bicycles, a novel on-bike locking mechanism) that have never been combined together in any bike-sharing scheme.

In response, BKK said that it had done a thorough market investigation of system providers and that the T-System consortium's offer was selected from among several competing bids. One reason the offer was chosen was that it was the least expensive, partly due to tax advantages connected to the inclusion of Hungary-based Csepel. BKK said it understood that there were "risks" with the offer due to the need to develop new software solutions from scratch. And because of this, BKK had insisted that its service contract include a rigorous set of deadlines and financial penalties.

BKK said it was clear from February that there would be difficulties with the telecommunications aspect of Bubi, and therefore the planned launch date of April 7 couldn't be set in stone. However, now that the testing phase is going into its third month, BKK is invoking its contractual protections.

It noted that consortium leader T-Systems has already issued a public call for patience as it works with its partners to get Bubi rolling.

According to the BKK communication, the consortium is liable for an HUF 1.798 million penalty for each day of delay past April 7. As of June 4, the accumulated penalty was already HUF 104 million.

According to the contract, the penalty ceiling is HUF 179.8 million and this will be reached on July 16 if Bubi doesn't launch before then. BKK says at that point, it could demand payment of the penalty and terminate the contract. However, BKK says it has 100 staff working on testing and is committed to have the project succeed if at all possible.

New Docks on the Blocks

A newly installed überstation with 30 bike docks across from the Nagy Vásárcsarnok at the foot of Szabadság Bridge.

A cycling contact of mine saw my last post about how the installation of Bubi's docking points had gotten off to a late start, but he says HE heard the system will launch on time.

Russell Meddin, a contributor to the Bike-Sharing Blog, said:

I spoke with the owner of Nextbike (one of the technology last week while he was in Washington, Dc. He told me with almost certainty that Budapest will launch on 7 April!!! 

But then added:

Almost every launch I've watched has slipped a few days or so! 

In any case, I noticed a report this week of further stations cropping up in downtown, and Thursday afternoon I went out hunting for others. I saw a newly installed one across the street from the Nagy Vásárcsarnok and another one along the Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út bike path.

Here's a new one at the corner of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út and Kálmán Imre utca.

Bike-share docks hit the streets -- finally

Here's Sequoia modelling in front of the Bubi terminal by Kodály körönd.

The first docking points for Budapest's planned bike-sharing system were installed last week. Transport authority BKK had said the installation would begin in February, which puts the work a month behind stated schedule. However, the planned launch for the system remains in April. We'll see if they stick to it -- keeping in mind the timeline has already slipped three years (Bubi was originally supposed to launch in 2011). 

According to BKK's Facebook page, the first installed docking points numbered four, all in District VI. They're at the following intersections: Teréz körút–Király utca, Kodály körönd, Városligeti fasor–Dózsa György utca, and Andrássy út–Káldy Gyula utca.

I took a quick ride out Saturday and took photos of three of them. They're all installed on the street, displacing space formerly used for car parking -- cool! They have 20 bike docks each. The rent-out consoles aren't ready to go, yet. Looks like further electronics work is needed before they're operational. And no sign of any bikes, yet.

The entire Mol Bubi system will comprise 75 docking stations and more than 1,000 bikes, mostly in central Pest but also along the Buda bank of the Danube, Margit Sziget and on up to Déli station. Here's a map.

... at the corner of Teréz körút–Király utca.

... at the corner of Városligeti fasor–Dózsa György utca.

Docking point.