Competition urged for Dropbike

Council asked to invite more bikerental companies to operate in city

Kelowna streets should be opened to a variety of bike-share operators, city council will hear Monday.

And electric bikes are expected to make up a big share of the rental fleet in the years ahead.

A pilot project involving Dropbike was a considerable success in Kelowna with the rental bikes proving more popular than in cities such as Portland, Ore., Boulder, Colo., and Boston.

“The uptake of bikeshare in Kelowna has been higher than expected,” reads part of a staff report to council.

The average Dropbike user was “younger and wealthier than the average Kelowna resident,” based on a survey filled out by those who rented the bright-orange bicycles.

Almost one-third of Dropbike users said that if they hadn’t rented a bike, they would have made the trip they were undertaking by car. City staff say that shows the program was successful in reducing the number of vehicles on Kelowna streets.

In the near future, electric bikes are expected to make up the majority of a rental fleet.

“For every pedal bike ride, bikeshare operators see more than two electric bicycle rides,” staff write in the report.

Council is being asked to support staff’s plan to invite a variety of bike-rental operators to place bicycles around Kelowna.

“With the evolution of the industry to more electrified vehicles, bikeshare companies are now growing faster than Uber did when it first launched,” the report states.

“Considerable potential now exists to attract seasoned global operators to invest in Kelowna,” it says.

In February 2018, the city signed an 18-month contract with Dropbike, meaning additional bike-rental companies are not likely to be operating in Kelowna until 2020.