Article

Nashville bike-share kiosks 'performing better than expected'

The recent success of the federal grant-funded program brought the city of Nashville more attention, but little has been said about the role of kiosks in the bike sharing trend.

September 12, 2014 by Nicole Troxell — Associate Editor, Networld Media Group

Whenever Nashville is in the limelight, it's usually for music. Now the tourist destination known as "Music City" is being recognized for a different reason: its bike-sharing initiative. The recent success of the federal grant-funded program brought the city more attention, but little has been said about the role of kiosks in the bike-sharing trend. 

KioskMarketplace.com had a chat with Communications Director Andrea Champion of Nashville Downtown Partnership, which operates the stations, to get details on the kiosks and the community's response to the program.

KioskMarketplace.com:Explain to me what the Nashville Downtown Partnership is and its role in the bike sharing program?

Champion: We're a downtown management organization that seeks to make Nashville a compelling urban center. We manage clean and safe operations and list over 800 downtown events on our website.We promote local events through social media, [and] we give discounted parking options for residents who park at the football stadium and ride our Park and Ride shuttles.

The city got a grant from the Center for Disease Control called the Communities for Prevention to work, so it was federal money. They passed it to us because we could get sponsors and advertise, which is something the city can't do. 

We have to keep sponsors because B-cycle (the bicycle-sharing program) did not fund it themselves; they're not self-sustaining, so if the program is going to be in the black you have to get sponsors. If it is too expensive no one will use it.

KioskMarketplace.com:Walk me through how a customer would access a bike.

Champion: If you aren't a member and just a regular person going to check out a bike you'll use a touchscreen computer, select to purchase a 24-hour pass for $5 and go through all the steps on the screen. You put in your credit card, select a bike and it gives you about 30 seconds to check out the bike. In order not to get hit with overage fees, we give the first 60 minutes for free; others cities cap that at 30 minutes and then at $1.50 for every 30 minutes after that. Then you just return it to the docking station and you don't have to interact with the kiosk.

If you are a member, you are mailed an RFID card and you wave that over the scanner, touch a button and select the bike you want.

KioskMarketplace.com:Which company developed the bike kiosks and how did your organization collaborate with them?

Champion: B-cycle is the company we chose. We chose them because of the experience Chattanooga had with Alta. They kept having problems with the software and lots of software and stations didn’t operate for five or six months, so we knew about that, but New York City opened with same company and they haven’t had any issues.

KioskMarketplace.com:What has been the response in the community to the bikes and the technology involved?

Champion: Most people just ask for more stations, but they're expensive to fund. It costs $40 to 50,000 for a station, so we have to have sponsors.But the program is performing better than expected. We had 48,000 checkouts in 2013, and so far in 2014 we're just 150 shy of 40,000, so we're definitely going to outpace number of checkouts from last year.

We haven't had many people have problems with the kiosks because they give you step-by-step instructions, which are pretty clear. The only problem we've had is people getting confused about the overage fees because they don't read everything. Most of the locals seem to have it down, but it's the tourists who have trouble.

You have to be 18 or older to check out a bike unless you have an adult with you and you have to have a credit card. Also, you have to be between 5 feet 2 inches or taller and no taller than 6 foot 5 inches, so small children wouldn't be able to ride.

KioskMarketplace.com:How many bike stations in the city are available and how did the organization decide where to place them in the city?

Champion: Right now we have 25 stations and 225 bikes. We had 20 stations initially and we've put stations in parks, the farmer's market and at the metro health department. Now new stations are determined by who wants to pay for one; for example, if a business wants one in front of their store.

The mayor's office, our organization and the health department decided where the kiosks should be placed. We had to consider available public space and work with some owners of private spaces, but density was the biggest factor in consideration. We had to decide where the most businesses were, where the most employees were and the most density in residential areas.

KioskMarketplace.com:What is the market demographic and what are some ways you try to reach them?

Champion: We do some advertising, but not much since the initial grant money. But I would say the demographic, if we had to choose one, would be males ages 20 to 50, but many females participate in the program too.

KioskMarketplace.com:What trends did your organization consider when developing this program that helped you believe it would be a success?

Champion: We know that many Gen Yers don't have cars, so it can service that generation as well as others who don't have cars to get around downtown. There's also a trend toward better public transportation in some cities, and in our case we're getting something like bus rapid transit (a bus system designed to run at the speed and efficiency of a light rail or metro) that functions so when that happens we'll be putting kiosks along there to supplement that.

Watch a demo video about how B-cycle kiosks like the ones in Nashville work, below:

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