Commuting with Mobi Bike Share

Tags

bike sharing, bikeshare, commute, mobi, Mobi by Shaw Go

In November I won a free annual membership to Vancouver’s bike share program, Mobi by Shaw Go. At the time I was working in Richmond and commuting 15 km each way on my Norco road bike. I didn’t need a bike share membership but thought it might come in handy occasionally.

Five months later and now I’m using Mobi every day for my commute, logging 175 trips and 400 km. What changed? In December I started a new job downtown and discovered that bike share is surprisingly the fastest way for me to get to and from work. It’s about 2 minutes faster than taking public transit and 5 minutes faster than using my own bike, because of the time it takes to store my bike in the secure bike parking rooms on each end.

The Mobi bikes are definitely heavier and slower than my road bike, but I only have a 2.5 km commute so averaging 15 km/h on a Mobi bike is only a minute or two slower than averaging 20 km/h on my road bike. And that’s only because I have a long stretch without traffic lights.

What I like about commuting with Mobi:

• I don’t have to worry about bike lights, flat tires, or worn out brake pads.
• The bikes all have chain guards so my pants don’t get greasy.
• I don’t have to worry if my bike will get stolen.
• The station density is pretty good. I have 3 stations near home and 2 close to work.

What I don’t like:

• Now that weather is getting better, it’s sometimes hard to find a bike, especially after work.
• I miss my panniers and the storage capacity they provided. The basket on the Mobi bikes provides some space, but nothing compared to 2 panniers.
• The shared helmets are a little gross, although they’ve worked out better than I expected. We’ll see how sweaty they get in the summer.
• The closest station to my work is at Granville and Georgia, but the bikes are covered in pigeon poop.

The @mobi_bikes station at Granville and Georgia should be moved one block north to Dunsmuir bike route. The bikes are unusable now because they are covered in pigeon 💩 while the other stations nearby are all super busy. pic.twitter.com/9Zn11CvH8G

— Christopher Porter (@cdnveggie) April 28, 2018

I’m guessing my summer commuting experience will be very different from the past 5 months. In the winter, I rarely had a problem finding a bike or a space to dock it when I was done. But in the past week, I’ve had 3 days where the station I normally use was out of bikes. The statistics below from MountainMath show that usage has really increased in the past week. I’m sure that’s due to the nice weather and Mobi’s recent expansion into East Vancouver.

Overall, I’ve been happy enough with Mobi that I’ll probably renew my membership. It doesn’t completely replace owning a bike for me – I still need my own to pull my daughter’s bike trailer. But for short commutes, I’ve been surprised to find it’s actually the most convenient way to get around.

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Mobi Soft Launch Today

Tags

bike-share, mobi, mobi bike share

Mobi is soft launching today with 23 stations (out of 150 that will be up and running by the end of the summer) for founding members only. They have a new website with an interactive map showing how many bikes and open spots are available at each station. They’re still working on their mobile apps for Android and iOS.

Details on Mobi pricing, including daily and monthly memberships, is available here.

There is a crowd-sourced map that includes the 23 stations available today and 7 more that are partially installed and should be available soon. The initial coverage is pretty sparse and doesn’t include anything south of Broadway or west of Burrard.

Here is the official Mobi launch map.

Mobi – Vancouver’s Bike Share

Tags

bike, bike sharing, bike-share, mobi

Vancouver’s Mobi Bike Share has been slowly rolling out across the city. It looks like they are a month behind their original mid-June launch date, but progress is being made. I’ve seen partial bike share stations installed under the Cambie Bridge (south-side) and near the Creekside Community Centre.

In the next few weeks, 100 stations will be distributed throughout Vancouver’s core. The initial service area is east of Arbutus, west of Main, and north of 16th including Stanley Park (green area below).

Update: Map of the initial stations is available here.

Here are the pricing options. First, you need to buy a membership (varying in length from 24 hours to 1 year). Most memberships come with free unlimited trips under 30 or 60 minutes. For longer trips, you pay an overage cost per half hour period. Currently, the only memberships for sale are the 1-year Founding Member ones.

Membership	Length	Signup Cost	Free Trip	Overage Cost (per half hour)
Founder 1	1 year	$99	30 min	$2 (30-60 min) $3 (>60 min)
Founder Plus 1	1 year	$129	60 min	$3
Monthly Basic 2	1 month	$10	None	$2
Monthly Standard 2	1 month	$15	30 min	$2 (30-60 min) $3 (>60 min)
Monthly Plus 2	1 month	$20	60 min	$3
Day Pass	24 hours	$7.50	30 min	$3

¹ – Founder prices only until June 30 (will likely be extended)
² – 3 month minimum for monthly plans

From what I’ve been told from Mobi staff, bikes must be returned to a bike share station to end your trip. Each bike comes with a cable lock that extends from the right handlebar to the fork that can be used if you want to make a quick stop without ending your rental. As an extra security measure, the handlebars can’t be turned when the bike is locked (like an immobilizer). Helmets will be provided with each bike (left on the cable lock).

Mobi’s full Terms and Conditions  (Archived Doc).