Downtown Kelowna bike rental service on a roll in early days
Dropbike program involving 180 bikes available for $1 an hour ‘exceeding our expectations so far,’ says city official
Wherever new bikes for rent are picked up in downtown Kelowna, they’re most commonly dropped off at The Sails sculpture.
The iconic artwork at the end of Bernard Avenue is by far the most favoured end point of rides made on a Dropbike.
The new bike rental service has been quite popular in just the two weeks since the program launched, city officials say.
“I’d say it’s exceeding our expectations so far,” Matt Worona, the city’s active transportation co-ordinator, said Tuesday. “We’re getting ridership numbers we didn’t really expect right off the get-go.
“But it’s still early days and we’ll have to see what happens after the novelty wears off and the network is built out into other areas of the city,” Worona said.
Two weeks ago, 180 of the Dropbikes were placed in various locations around downtown. They can be rented for $1 an hour using an app.
Because the bikes are equipped with GPS technology, some fairly detailed data was gathered during the program’s first week:
— The bikes were rented 1,000 times in the first week, with 500 unique riders.
— So far, about 1,000 people have downloaded the app needed to use a Dropbike.
— The average trip length is about 50 minutes, suggesting most riders are using the bikes for a scenic tour rather than a specific trip to another area of downtown.
— On June 16, each Dropbike was ridden an average of 2.5 times, a level of use which Worona says is similar to that seen in Vancouver on a summer Saturday.
— There are three peak usage periods: lunch, dinner and later in the evening when bars are busy.
Perhaps surprisingly, none of the 180 Dropbikes has been stolen. The bikes have a locking mechanism that isn’t released until the rental fee is paid.
“I kind of thought we would see a bit of a problem with some of the bikes disappearing, but that hasn’t been an issue at all,” Worona said.
“In Seattle, if their rental bikes are moved without payment, they’ll beep and a voice will say, ‘Please stop moving me or I’ll call the police,’” Worona said.
“The bikes we have in Kelowna don’t do that, but they will beep if they’re moved without the fee being paid.”
More bikes will be added during the summer. The trial period, which isn’t costing the City of Kelowna anything, will last until the fall of 2019.