Minneapolis’s Nice Ride bike share ( shiny, updated official website for 2011) has woken up for the 2011 season. Denver’s B-Cycle reopened a few weeks ago. Washington DC & Arlington’s Capital Bikeshare meanwhile continues to get more and more popular, with up to 15% usage on weekdays and higher at weekends, and Miami Beach’s new DecoBike has got off to a spectacular start, with up to 30% of the bikes being in simultaneous use at peak time – about the maximum percentage you would want a scheme to go before finding bikes becomes a real problem. Montreal’s Bixi gets going again later this month. It looks like this is going to be a great year for US/Canadian bike sharing!
Back in the UK, London’s tactics have changed slightly. Significantly fewer bikes are now in the system during weekdays – down 10-15% on launch – but these bikes are put back into the system for the weekend. Weekend afternoon usage is also now very big, with the “spike” of usage being bigger than the weekday commuter ones, and for longer. Looks like the warm, sunny days and the casual user usage patterns are really making a difference now.