Tuesday 29 January 2008

The TH Interview: Bicing, Barcelona’s Bike Sharing System (Part 3: Clear Channel) : TreeHugger

The TH Interview: Bicing, Barcelona’s Bike Sharing System (Part 3: Clear Channel) : TreeHugger: "This week we interviewed Clear Channel Outdoor in Spain, the company behind the bike sharing system Bicing in Barcelona, whose success story you can read here. We previously interviewed Mayra Nieto from Barcelona’s City Council (Part 1) as well as some of its over 100.000 users (Part 2).

Clear Channel Outdoor is the world's largest outdoor advertising company, designing advertising displays for anywhere from airports and taxis to malls and including some of New York's Times Square displays. We learned that one of the most sustainable and innovative Product Service Systems like the Bicing, is the fruit of this company’s international street furniture division. Read what Jordi Sáez, regional director of Clear Channel in Catalonia, has to say about Bicing and sharing bikes."

Tuesday 15 January 2008

The TH Interview: Bicing, Barcelona’s Bike Sharing System (Part 2: the Users) : TreeHugger

The TH Interview: Bicing, Barcelona’s Bike Sharing System (Part 2: the Users) : TreeHugger: "This is Part 2 of our interview series about Barcelona’s bike sharing system Bicing. You can read the first interview with Mayra Nieto from the Barcelona City Council here. To find out what Bicing users thought of their relatively new public transport system, we went into the streets and asked them. With 194 stations and over 100.000 users it wasn’t difficult to fget hold of them."

Tuesday 8 January 2008

The TH Interview: Bicing, Barcelona’s Bike Sharing System (Part 1: City Council) : TreeHugger

The TH Interview: Bicing, Barcelona’s Bike Sharing System (Part 1: City Council) : TreeHugger: "The TH Interview: Bicing, Barcelona’s Bike Sharing System (Part 1: City Council)"

TreeHugger interview with Mayra Nieto from the Mobility Division of B:SM, the Barcelona Municipal Service.

Friday 4 January 2008

More on the new bikes

I saw bike #4192 (and #9) today and had a look at the changes. I didn't have my camera with me, so pictures will have to wait.

As I mentioned before: the obsolete lamp holder in the front was removed. The new bikes also have a new gear shifter, which looks a bit more robust. The biggest change is to the front brake, which was replaced by a drum brake. These should be more reliable than the old brake. Drum brakes work better in the rain, don't need as much adjustments and don't have the problem of stolen brake pads.

#4192 got me thinking today: bicing just announced that they have 3000 bicycles in service. Does that mean that 1192 bikes got stolen or broken?

btw: my bicing card worked again today, after reentering my credit card information in the online system. It is the same card, so it is a bit strange.

Thursday 3 January 2008

100000 bicing users

Bicing now has 100000 subscribers, 194 stations and 3000 bicycles. And all in less than a year since the start in March 2007. Here is a video with our mayor with card #100000. The mapabicing blog also has a new map with all the stations

I saw bicycle number 3970 today. This is the highest number I have seen so far and the first bicycle without the original front light holder attached to the basket. I wonder what they come up with next, as the new "temporary" lights aren't really that good either

My card still doesn't work, but I have given them my credit card information again. Lets hope that this will help. No reply to email yet either.

Wednesday 2 January 2008

got bitten twice

This time I got bitten by the bicing computer problems too.

At the moment I am not able to use bicing, because the stations tell me that my card is not valid. They recognise it as a card, but not as a valid one. Whatever that means. I send them a email, lets see what happens.

Once I noticed this I checked my bicing account and noticed that they think I used a bike for 3h30m on the 20th. The start time is ok, as I used it to get to work, which takes 10m. For some reason the bicycle thinks I returned it at noon. This probably means paying a penalty unless they admit that this is an error

Well, lets see...

Tuesday 1 January 2008