Bicycle Sharing System Bixi Comes to New York
BIXI GOES TO NEW YORK The Public Bike System Company (PBSC) was a private company operating Bixi, a bike-sharing service in Montreal, Canada. Bike sharing systems had seen rapid global growth in the recent years, and the equipment used for the Bixi system was considered as one of the best available on the market. Because of this, Bixi-based systems had been sold to a number of cities in the past two years, including MinneapolisSt-Paul, Melbourne, Washington D.C., London, Toronto, and Boston.
PBSC, along with Alta, a Portland-based company specialized in the implementation and the management of bike-sharing systems using PBSC proprietary technology, was involved in a bid to sell a bixi-based system to the City of New York. A few weeks before the selection of a provider for a bike sharing system in New York, news had leaked that PBSC was experiencing financial difficulties with its Montreal operations. The contract was worth several millions of dollars and was crucial to Bixi. The leak had the potential to jeopardize the chances of PBSC-Alta to win the contract.
BICYCLE SHARING SYSTEMS AROUND THE GLOBE
In 2011, bike-sharing services was a booming industry (exhibit 1). From 213 bike-sharing systems in operation in 14 countries across Europe in 2008, by this point there were 375 bike-sharing systems in operation across North America, Asia and Europe. With 90 percent of the systems based in Europe, the growth was anticipated to come from North America and the Asia-Pacific region.
Bike-sharing services were offered through systems that made bikes available to users through docking stations spread across a city. They typically operated on a membership-basis, with the membership giving access to the fleet of bikes of a given city. Membership granted users the right to borrow a bike at any docking station at any time of the day, free of charge for up to 30 or 45 minutes, and to return it to a docking station of their choice.
The market for
PBSC, along with Alta, a Portland-based company specialized in the implementation and the management of bike-sharing systems using PBSC proprietary technology, was involved in a bid to sell a bixi-based system to the City of New York. A few weeks before the selection of a provider for a bike sharing system in New York, news had leaked that PBSC was experiencing financial difficulties with its Montreal operations. The contract was worth several millions of dollars and was crucial to Bixi. The leak had the potential to jeopardize the chances of PBSC-Alta to win the contract.
BICYCLE SHARING SYSTEMS AROUND THE GLOBE
In 2011, bike-sharing services was a booming industry (exhibit 1). From 213 bike-sharing systems in operation in 14 countries across Europe in 2008, by this point there were 375 bike-sharing systems in operation across North America, Asia and Europe. With 90 percent of the systems based in Europe, the growth was anticipated to come from North America and the Asia-Pacific region.
Bike-sharing services were offered through systems that made bikes available to users through docking stations spread across a city. They typically operated on a membership-basis, with the membership giving access to the fleet of bikes of a given city. Membership granted users the right to borrow a bike at any docking station at any time of the day, free of charge for up to 30 or 45 minutes, and to return it to a docking station of their choice.
The market for