Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Family Tree of Bicycle Use Programs

With the rise in popularity of bike-sharing has come the rise in misuse of the term. I see bike-sharing as bike transit which is available at unattended stations to the general public, usually in urban locations to complement the existing transit network. This is different from bike rental which is for recreational purposes and private-use programs, like those of universities, residences, and employment sites, which are used school, work, and recreational trips, respectively. Each are perfect for their own intended uses. There is also a gray area between a few of the branches.

So here I present the "Phylogenetic Tree of Bicycle Use Programs" or more simply "Bike Use Programs Family Tree". The tree is divided into types of programs, providers of these programs, and known examples of each with their level of sophistication defined by their generation.




My goal with producing the Tree is to put governments, universities, residences, and organizations on the same page so we're using the same terminology. This can only be beneficial to the concept of bike-sharing.

What are your thoughts? As this is a work in progress, do you have suggestions for clarification or improvement? Let me know.


5 comments:

Andy D. said...

This is actually a very useful diagram for differentiating among the various approaches. Thanks!

anabananasplit said...

That's very cool. You can almost turn it into a road map if you actually list all the examples you know for each category with a link. :-)

Just a note: a letter swap, it's Aveiro and not Aviero. ;-) And BUGA is an acronym for "Bicicleta de Utilização Gratuita de Aveiro", that is "Bicycle of Free Use of Aveiro", or something like that. :-)

Anonymous said...

Paul - Great idea to combine so many examples onto one chart! I see a lot of potential for this.

I would recommend changing up the colours a bit to make it easier to read, as black text on blue-grey background is not ideal.

Also, "phylogenetic" is not the best word for the masses - would recommend "Evolution of Bike Sharing Programs" or simply "Groupings of Bike Sharing Programs by ____ [some category]"

Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

Cool man. I think this can be implemented in city where i staying now, Sinagpore. With increasing of Car users, this going to cut down air pollution here.

Veronica Caciagli said...

Hi, sorry for this out of topic post.. Since you are expert in this field, I would like to ask you something about the contribution of bike-sharing in reducing CO2 emissions and tackling climate change: do you know if there are they any studies assesting how many CO2 emissions a single bike-sharing bicycle do contribute to avoid?
Thank you very very much!