Thomas Breen photo
The bike-free bike share station at Orange Street and Pearl Street. Below: Bikes gone, ads remain.
New Haven’s bike share program has entered its second month in a row with no bikes available to rent … but if prospective riders want to enjoy a large vodka advertisement on the sidewalk instead, the program is working at full capacity.
The service, Bike New Haven, pulled all 300 of its rentable bicycles from city streets on Jan. 1 as the company that manages the service prepares to transition from one bike and mobile app provider to another.
“Bikes will be re-introduced to the service area operating under the new platform no later than February 1, 2020,” read a Bike New Haven email update from Dec. 20.
That email said that P3GM, the company that manages New Haven’s bike share service, is transitioning from using the technology platform that Bike New Haven launched with in Feb. 2018, which is called Noa, to a new platform called TapBike.
“The intention of the transition is to upgrade service and improve return accuracy,” that Dec. 20 email continued. “Users will now be able to reserve bikes at stations in advance and rent multiple bikes at a time. The bike share program will remain station based with a total of 300 bicycles in the fleet.”
A map of the city’s 30 existing bike stations, all of which currently have no bikes.
Bike New Haven sent out its next “Suspension of Service Update” email on Jan. 31 — announcing that the Feb. 1 deadline was a bit ambitious.
“You’ve probably noticed the bikes and signs have been removed from stations and new station signs, introducing TapBike as our new provider, have popped up around the City of New Haven,” this latest email read. “We’re working hard to prepare the system to be relaunched in the coming weeks, and look forward to introducing the final product.”
P3GM Director of Operations Matt Finelli told the Independent by email that the delayed reintroduction of rentable bicycles is due to “an unforeseen problem with the technology integration that was outside of TapBike’s control. We are coordinating with TapBike and the third-party to expedite the integration, and plan to be re-deployed this winter. We have already re-branded each of our stations with updated rental instructions and station maps, have tuned-up the fleet, and made improvements on the hardware based on user feedback.”
He said that the new fleet and app, when deployed, should address complaints that Bike New Haven customers have sent P3GM over the past two years regarding the return accuracy of the service’s app, among other issues.
Finelli said that, life-to-date, Bike New Haven has had over 6,200 registered members. At the time of temporary service shutdown in January, Bike New Haven had over 100 members with a long-term subscription.
Customers can rent Bike New Haven bikes — when they’re available — for $1.75 for a single 45-minute ride, for $8 per day (with each individual ride limited to no longer than 45 minutes), for $20 per month, or for $90 per year.
During “peak season,” Finelli said, Bike New Haven averaged 80 to 100 trips per day.
While the bikes may be gone, the eight-by-four-foot ad panels installed at nearly all of the 30 bike share stations around the city remain. The stations also have new TapBike signage with instructions on how to rent on one side, and a map of existing bike stations on the other.
At at least one of those ad panels, outside Blue State Coffee at the Orange Street-Pearl Street station, includes an ad for Tito’s Vodka.
“Smooth,” the ad reads, standing before the bikeless station. “I mean really smooth!”
Not all of the station’s ad panels include vodka displays. The one at Audubon Street and Orange Street, for example, currently displays an ad for Bike New Haven itself. The ad panel at the station at Orange Street and Elm Street currently displays an ad for McDonald’s.
The bike share program is funded by advertisement revenue and subscriber fees, and is not paid for by city government.
The company has also yet to install OjO electronic scooters in the city. P3GM’s CEO promised last February that the electric scooters would be available in New Haven last spring.
“On scooters, our focus at this time is on relaunching the bike share service,” Finelli said by email. “We are happy to continue conversations with the City of New Haven on a shared scooter program once the current service is relaunched.”
City spokesperson Gage Frank said that the city “is really excited to start this new bike share relaunch.”