Stone into still water: Bike sharing for a better use of public space in Budapest and beyond
1. Stone into still water
Bike sharing
for a better use of public space
in Budapest and beyond
Péter Dalos
Bike sharing product manager
BKK Centre for Budapest Transport
27 September 2018, Collaborative Mobility conference, London
11. 11
BKK – INTEGRATED MOBILITY MANAGEMENT
•Development and implementation of BMT Balázs Mór plan
(SUMP)
•Organizing public transport
•Public bike sharing (MOL Bubi)
•Strategic decisions in connection with city-logistics, parking
management e-mobility and car sharing
•Authorizing taxis
•Strategic road network operation and reconstruction
management
•Development, maintenance and operation of the extended
infrastructure
•Macroscopic transport modelling
•International R&D projects
A car driver, a pedestrian and a cyclist walk into a bar.
They sit on a round table in the back.
On the table are 12 beers. The car driver immediately takes 10 beers. Then he turns to the pedestrian and says:
"Look out for that damned cyclist, he is out to steal your beer!„
~Gerard Doustraat, Amsterdam
What’ behind this?
Two fundamental factors:
Squaremeter/passenger – this is obvious
Speed
These two determinate
Equivalent urban space occupancy for different modes of transport
Many urban planners but unfortunately only a few transport planners have already realized
That we need extensive road diet in our cities.
In order to limit the speed and the volume of this
dehumanizing mode of transport.
Look at this spatial analysis!
Shows the disproportional and unfair allocation of road space in a city.
And it is not even the US!
It is CPH, yes: copenhagen!
Robin Chase pointed out yesterday in a very nice way what Jan Gehl told us before.
First we shape our cities, than our cities shape us!
We are experiencing this destiny in Budapest
A city with a huge potential for better public spaces
A city with a Paris-like street pattern with boulevards and avenues.
And an excellent PT
But still facing the well-known effects of mass-motorization
For tha majority of public space users
First of all
The children
And the elderly
Budapest has a clear vision – set in a SUMP
More cycling
Not not just more cycling, but more cycling combined with public transport!
Key aspect of the success of our BSS is that
We integrated bike sharing into our strategy
We provide BSS as a public service
Now I will focus on a tiny but even more imporant detail of our scheme.
I want to tell you
How we fight for a better urban life
Through the good practices in our bike sharing station design
We have a clear vision for our historic city centre
the bicycle is a vehicle
Its place is on the carriageway
That is why we buld cycle lanes
The reason is the same why we
Try our best to avoid putting bike sharing docking stations onto the sidewalk
We communicate that we want to avoid people cycling on the sidewalk
But the real reason why we decided that the primary place for docking stations is the parking lane – in between the curbs
Because we believe that in this way we can reach our ultimate target!
Yeah! The bicycle is a „VEHICLE””!
Not a motor vehicle but a vehicle.
As such, it is an instrument, an effective tool to take back urban public space for cars
No need to mention that this turns to be a real „street fight” very often
With
Distritcts and mayors of districts
Because their perception is that they can not finance their budget with less car parking and
This may be an even stronger perception:
They strongly believe that the majoritry of their voters would turn away if they would transform some private car parking places into
Places for shared mobility
Let me tell you about our strategic approach in putting this form of shared mobility
In the right place
Let me show you the main aspects of bike share station design standards in a nutshell!
I brought some photos of my favourite docking station
It even appeared in NACTO’s bike sharing planning guide some years ago as a best practice.
This is a feeder „hub” for a main tramline
The most used tramline in the world, not kidding
200 thousand passengers per day.
Let’s have a look at some details!
Docking S or HUB! between the curbs
On the place of 3 parked cars
Maneuvering zone – marked the yellow line
Direction of bikes towards the carriageway
Easy access/egress or pickup/return
Road diet
Extended curb
Shorter crossing distance
Speed reduction
works like a barrier or bottleneck for car drivers
The whole place became a much nicer, more attractive little plaza for people to stay for a while
We also put some traditional bike racks next to it
Besides private use we often see our respected competitor, Donkey Republic on these racks as well.
We can call it another multiplicator effect!
Have look at the same intersection before the implementation of the bike sharing station
Terrible, isn’t it?
What I particularly like that we achieved a bunch of spinoffs with this docking station
We improved the environment not only for shared mobility users but
For the elderly, for the children as well
We created a little more equity in this public „microspace”
with a deeply strategic approach
This was only one pillar of our strategic mindset
As a mobility manager conmpany we really make an effort to improve the public space by
Shared mobility projects
Our main aim: promotion of urban cycling
I personally believe that bike sharing is the best for this
But it is also very effective in raising awareness towards many urban problems/opportunities.
Anyway, we’ve been successful with our approach:
Visible results on the street
Created a Well known, valuable brand
Generated Cycle friendly road development
More cycling overall
Bie sharing acknowledged as public transport
Partly thank to BS Budapest became a cycling city – scored top ten in the copenhagenize index
I Hope that I was able to show you our philosophy and the commitment behind the daily work we do.
I strongly believe that this contributes to the „real” revolution for a better urban space use!
Thank you for your interest.
