– News about Quincy from Quincy Quarry News.
Lime Bikes rolls into Quincy after ofo’s yellow bikes turned out to be a lemon.
That and how ofo bikes are still lingering here and there in Quincy.
China-based ofo bikes bailed out of Quincy two weeks ago – as well as was previously – after it shutdown most of it US operations and now Lime is hoping to somehow or other make a profit via a dockless bike ride sharing model.
As Lime already operates in over a dozen nearby communities, perhaps such may provide it with operating efficiencies.
The only good news is that Quincy has not (yet, ed.) suffered as much as Dallas has as ofo and other bike ridesharing services scrapped their Dallas operations.
In any event, Quincy Quarry was dimed with Citizen Photojounalist smartphone photo of today’s state of bike ride sharing in Quincy.
ofo’s sudden implosion of most of its US operations notwithstanding, Quincy City Hall is touting ofo’s time in Quincy as a success.
Quincy Quarry’s forensic accounting personnel, however, uncovered a number of questions about these latest suspect financial claims foisted by the Koch Maladministration.
For example, the City of Quincy’s Director of Traffic, Parking, Alarm and Light stated that ofo bikes had logged 9,000 miles of riding in the Q during its roughly seven weeks of operation in Quincy.
Small problem, however: given that ofo had rolled 200 bikes into Quincy, such pencils out to a bit less than a mile of riding per day per bike in spite of ofo offering free promotional riding time to those who downloaded its bike ridesharing app onto their smartphones.
Granted, one can only assume that ofo was planning to sell its riders riding habits and related demographics to third parties for some incremental revenue, a mile a day in bike riding use rental revenue is not likely to provide a sufficient basis for Lime to be profitable either.
Especially if one further runs assumes that the average bike rider should be able to ride at least five miles in an hour.
Per such an entirely rationale pro forma analysis, at ofo’s announced regular rental rate of a dollar an hour, 9,000 miles ridden over seven weeks of prime warm time of the year for riding a bike works out to a rental revenue of only $1,800.
Assuming a reasonable thirty-five weeks of prime riding time annually, such – in turn – indicates annual bike ridesharing rental revenue in Quincy of only $9,000 to cover Lime’ operating and maintenance costs for its plans to roll out at least three hundred bikes in Quincy.
Alternatively, even if one assume only a mile ridden per hour rented, such works out to only $45,000 in annual revenue during prime riding time.
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Interesting take on the bike sharing economy. Although I appreciate “back of the envelope” calculations, I think there are too many assumptions here about profitability. For one, the user base will continue to grow as more people try the bikes. Also, the bike share model generally relies on a lot of short trips, most people probably bike no more than 1-2 miles, riding 15-20 minutes (based on my own experience using such systems). Each user pays $1 per ride (within the designated time limit), so more short rides mean more money for Lime Bikes. I’m glad to see them in Quincy, especially when I have to rely on the Wollaston MBTA shuttle, and hope they succeed. Now we just need to make streets more friendly for cyclists!
Barry,
Quincy Quarry is all for bike riding if for no other reason than that finding parking in much of Quincy is a nightmare.
It also finds things to be said about bicycle ride sharing, at least conceptually.
The problems, however, are economics, demographics and “free riding.” It would also appear that these and other downsides were not duly pondered.
Quincy Quarry’s ride sharing revenue pro forma offers a conservative low and a very generous fivefold higher monthly revenue projection.
Even at the high end, however, a considerable increase in bike utilization levels – as in by multiples – would appear likely necessary for ride sharing to become profitable in Quincy over the long haul, especially after considering sure to be low use during the cold time of the year.
Such in turn links to demographics – specifically: is Quincy sufficiently densely populated for bike sharing (not to mention that local streets and such are NOT bike-friendly)? The Quarry suspects maybe not and ofo’s recent collapse in the US as well as massive problems with bike sharing in China and elsewhere pose legitimate concerns.
And finally, there is the free-riding factor: dockless bike ride sharing services are taking advantage of sidewalk space and such without providing any payment to the City of Quincy.
Additionally, The City of Quincy went to the expense of pulling a couple of ofo’s dockless bikes out of the harbor. We have no idea if ofo paid for rolling out City of Quincy diving team personnel and equipment to pull these bikes out of the drink.
Conversely, street vendors are proscribed locally – but the undeniable clutter of bike sharing on our sidewalks and such was approved in the Q without much – if anything – in the way of formal public input, hearings and such in spite of all manner of hard and soft costs bike sharing imposes upon the community.
Granted, soft benefits also accrue, but NO metrics on EITHER side of things have been provided. Such is only properly troubling as there is no such thing as a free lunch.
In short, while the Quarry will keep an open mind, bike sharing in the Q still looks to be not ready for prime time at this time.