New York City’s Bike Sharing Future

Urban bike sharing programs have popped up across the globe in recent years, with successful programs in Denver, Paris, Barcelona, Mexico City and Copenhagen. New York city may be next, thanks to a new system developed by the team at Social Bicycles. Rather than relying only on a series of central command stations where riders must pick up and drop off bikes, the Social Bicycle System (SoBi) includes a unit that fits directly on to a bike. The unit contains a GPS device, a cellular device and a lock. Users that register with SoBi can use their smartphones to track down bikes in the city. Once a rider locates a nearby bike, it can be unlocked with the rider’s smartphone. Riders can also flag bikes for repair and use a hold function, which will hold a bike for 10 minutes. The flexibility of the concept is convenient, but it also costs much less than other programs which rely on systems with more complicated infrastructure. According to SoBi founder Ryan Rzepecki, the SoBi system costs about $1,000 per bike while other systems require between $3,000-$4,000 per bike. Sobi will begin testing the program in the fall.