Monday, October 11, 2010

Where's My Villo?


A group of Brussels residents had concerns about the quality of service that JCDecaux was providing in their town... so they did something about it. On September 6 the group created Where's My Villo? -- Villo! being the name of their bike-sharing service which launched in May 2009 -- to track certain performance measures, including the availability of bikes and parking spaces. The data they use to track performance is that from JCDecaux's Villo! website.

In addition to improving the reliability of the service, Where's My Villo? also asks for JCDecaux "to commit to transparent and easily verifiable service levels" with no station remaining "empty or completely full for more than 60 consecutive minutes." Finally, the team asks for a users' group to assist JCDecaux in evaluating the Villo! service.

Hopefully this will lead to a better service for Brussels. It also can be a learning tool for advocates around the world to assist in pressuring service providers for a better service in their own communities. Soon, maybe Where's My Villo? will no longer need to ask this question as they'll have finally found it.

No comments: