Image courtesy of LimeBike
Rental-bike companies have no shortage of data since GPS tracking shows us exactly where the bikes are traveling throughout the city.
The heat map above depicts the frequency of LimeBike rides in East Dallas. The more red, the more rides. Ofo’s heat map below shows ride frequency with red dots. The blue dots represent DART stops. Data like this help the companies figure out where to place the bikes, but also provide the City of Dallas with information on where to improve cycling infrastructure.
Image courtesy of ofo
At a panel discussion hosted by The Better Block with City Councilman Philip Kingston and The Ticket’s Craig Miller, LimeBike’s Anthony Fleo said the company has 114,000 registered users and 90,000 active users in Dallas. He said rental-bike companies enhance the city’s public transportation by allowing neighbors to travel that last mile of their commute from a bus or train stop via rental bike.
At the discussion, Fleo said that once company representatives figure out the total demand, they could reduce the number of bicycles in Dallas. “If it is not what makes sense, we will reduce the number of bikes,” he said. “We are a for-profit company. As we get more data on usage, we will be able to make decisions.”
He also let the crowd know they are not selling the data. “We house the data in America and don’t share it,” he said.
Neighbors have commented that the docked program in Fort Worth is a better rental-bike system, but Fleo said that there were more LimeBike rides in Dallas during December and January than there were in Fort Worth all year.
Another purveyor of rental bikes, ofo, shared this information about their bike-share program:
- Nearly 70 percent of ofo’s rides start or end near a transit hub in Dallas.
- 20 percent of ofo’s fleet is being used in southern Dallas.
- Since early November, Dallas cyclists have ridden more that 100,000 miles with an ofo bicycle.
- Bicycle usage increased more than 50 percent in December and 75 percent in January, despite the cold weather.
Krista Nightengale, Anthony Fleo, Philip Kingston and Craig Miller discuss bike share at Oddfellows in Oak Cliff.
