As part of the City of Sydney’s ongoing plan to increase cycling in Sydney, the Institute for Sensible Transport led a preliminary workshop with staff on bike share. Dr Elliot Fishman provided a short presentation on global bike share, key barriers and facilitators to use, as well as emerging technological opportunities.

The three hour workshop included content and discussion on the following areas:

  1. Brief background to bike share, international best practice, Melbourne and Brisbane’s experience, and considerations for Sydney’s unique context.
  2. Probing the opportunities City of Sydney staff see in developing a bike share program, from both an operational and user experience perspective.
  3. Costs and risks: What exposure to risk do City of Sydney staff see in developing a bike share program? Specifically, an exploration of risks associated with low ridership and operational constraints were explored.
  4. What would a bike share program for Sydney look like? How could the system be designed to maximise the value proposition and attractiveness to potential users? What land use and population features would determine docking station locations, catchment area and number of bikes? What marketing strategies should be employed to boost usage rates? What bicycle features would work best in Sydney to enhance the user experience?

The key themes emerging from the discussion of the above issues was presented to the City of Sydney as a summary report. The findings and recommended actions will be used to inform future activities related to a potential bike share program for Sydney.