PUBLIC BIKE OR PUBLIC LOCKER?

PUBLIC BIKE OR PUBLIC LOCKER? PUBLIC LOCKER

Strengths Weaknesses Cost: It's unexpensive. No relocation costs.
Convenience: You use the best bike: Yours
Availability: You always get a bike when you need it
It's better for the bike industry It's not currently implemented
Starting needs big investment
Many have strong visual impact
Some are not friendly to manoeuver
Public locker system will always be less expensive than public bike system because of bike relocating and maintenance costs.
Public locker system will always be more beneficial for bike industry because it contributes to sell more and better bikes.
Public locker system will help e-bike to widespread, and e-bike will improve the number of cyclists and the total number of cycled kms.
Public locker systems usually have a bigger visual impact in urban landscape.
Public bike system puts bikes so available that it can contribute to make new cyclists.
A few used public bike system looks like "a lot of bikes are being offered" whereas a few used public locker system looks as "a lot of public room is being wasted" WHAT'S STRUCTURAL Public bike systems are currently widely implemented
Big companies are offering a variety of public bike systems
To implement a public locker system requires a big investment WHAT'S CIRCUMSTANTIAL SO, PUBLIC BIKE OR PUBLIC LOCKER? We can't say which is the best. Each one plays a different role in developing urban cycling culture.

A mix of both is needed, a different mix for each particular city, depending on how developed its cycling habits might be.

As a general rule, public bike service will prevail in starter cities, and its relative weight will decrease in climber and champion cities. This is so because of some reasons already mentioned: A politician of a starter city can proudly show lots of public bikes in their racks but he would be severely criticised if lots of empty lockers are wasting public room. The wasted public room is even larger for public bikes, the wasted money is certainly more for public bikes but human are just partially rational animals and lots of empty lockers look definitely worse than lots of bikes in their racks.

Public bikes are constantly inviting non cyclists to have a try. That's a very positive influence in a starter city.

As the number of cyclists grows up, if they all are going to use the public bike service, the cost will rise dramatically.

A climber or champion city will show a growing number of urban cyclists and growing distances cycled by them, which will undoubtedly be linked to the widespread of the e-bike. And e-bikes ask for safe lockers. Public locker systems will be needed in the future because climber and champion cities are the future. But lockers will have to be ergonomic, so that heavy e-bikes can be easily manoeuvered, and they'll have to minimize their impact on urban landscape BICYCASE, a locker for the future HOW TO BUILD UP A PUBLIC LOCKER SYSTEM A public locker system needs both a considerable number of lockers and an intelligently managed locking solution.

You can get these elements either at once or gradually.

If you have a sufficient critical mass of cyclists, an accurate idea of where the lockers should be installed and of how do you want precisely to manage them, and the necessary resources to finance the investment, you can just go ahead.

If you're lacking some of the above-mentioned elements, you can gradually install lockers provided with standard locks for private use. Thus, you can patiently build up the base of your future locker network.

Different formula can be used in order to achieve this goal: Renting, leasing, administrative awarding, ... Whatever it is used, it will have to grant the user the right to park his bike into a locker placed on an appealing urban area, and also it will have to foresee how will he be compensated if ever a transition to a public locker system occurs while the awarding delay is still in force.

A part of the future locker network can be financed by private users as mentioned above, and another part will undoubtedly be financed by the fraction of the public bike system that can be substituted as a consequence. It's currently established in the market
Big companies are promoting it
You're offered a bike, so you don't need yours
Little impact in urban landscape PUBLIC BIKE Strengths Weaknesses It's an expensive solution
The bikes are not great
The bikes are not customized
The bike may not be in good state when you get it
You may not find a bike when you need it