PEBSS member Bikeplus just hosted a successful, audience-packed conference in Manchester on UK Bike Share, driving collaborative discussions, presentations, and debates on the evolution of bike share across the UK. Manchester was chosen as the location of this conference in grand part because it became the first large UK city to start its bike share from scratch with dock-free bike share through its agreement with Mobike this past June. After 4 months of a trial period, interesting learnings have been gleaned, with the city awarding Mobike approval to further expand its fleet as demand continues to surge.

Such topics as bike share infrastructure, impacts through social equity, public transport integration, and use incentivisation were important elements of the conference. There was a strong consensus on the need for greater legal and regulatory frameworks to ensure smart development of urban bike share, and to foster a diversity of models and approaches.

PEBSS Director Paul Stratta chaired a panel discussion entitled “The Commercialisation of Public Bike Share business models”, exploring the outer limits of the business of bike share, and the need for it to become a self-sustaining profitable business sector while at the same time delivering desirable public good outcomes. Cities can’t take an arms-length approach to this business eco-system, as if not steered correctly, urban mobility can suffer, particularly if it suppresses bicycle usage through over-use, insufficient bike parking and infrastructure.

Conclusions reached included the need to stimulate diverse, self-enforcing networks of interoperable bike share across the urban landscape, and not let it result in winner-take-all scenarios. Cities yearn for more guidance on how to strategically steer a smarter, better bike share environment.

PEBSS’ upcoming Cities + Smart Bike Share workshop scheduled for November 20-21, in Brussels, will address exactly that topic: the oversight powers that cities can employ to ensure “best-in-breed” bike share eco-systems, that also exceed as businesses and become thus sustainable.