[sustran] Re: [GATNET] RE: FW: Info African bikesharing sites

[eric britton]

I like the direction you are heading on this Carlos, but I still wonder
about your a priori, i.e., it looks to me on the basis of what I see in your
questions that you are looking for "formal" bike sharing as practiced for
the most part in the North/West. Fair enough, but as we know when you get
into the streets of Africa, India, etc., a rather different world emerges --
in which people may well be sharing bikes, but in an entirely different way.


I see a bit of a parallel there. A lot of those people who have decided to
look at "carsharing" end up looking for a specific cub-set, which in most
cases misses the informal carsharing that may, in the long run, be a much
more useful trail for the future. 

Ain't it true that we end up seeing for the most part what we look for. It
kind be a form of blindness, eh?

But Carlos, all that said, I really like what you are doing and urging.
After all, there are close to a billion people on the continent. Most of who
are getting little useful attention and support for the ways in which they
are getting around in their daily lives. 

You give me a thought. Even though we are all overstretched, might it not be
an idea for each of us to at least think about if and how to give say 20% of
our time in 2012 to lending a hand in Africa. Not to easy to do maybe, but
worthy of a good try.

Best/Eric

PS. I am copying this thread to our dear friends at Sustran as well as World
Bikes. 

_____________________________________________________


-----Original Message-----
From: CarlosFelipe Pardo [mailto:deespacio at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, 07 October, 2011 16:26
To: Gatnet - Gender and Transport Community of Practice
Cc: Eric Britton; WorldStreets at yahoogroups.com; brachetti.filippo at gmail.com;
hdschindler at yahoo.de; WorldCityBike at yahoogroups.com; Aimee Gauthier
Subject: Re: [GATNET] RE: FW: Info African bikesharing sites

Hi,

I agree, we should first define what we want to mean by "bike share 
systems" as Eric says. Since I am most interested in the topic and have 
done some research on this (and a full course and publication on the 
subject), for the sake of thoroughness I would like to get from Hannes 
(or anyone who has information) to provide us all with the following 
information from the systems he knows about:

- City / country
- Name of system and  website (where available)
- type (generation) of system (i.e. White Bicycles being 1st, Copenhagen 
or Santiago being 2nd, Velib being 3rd)
- Amount of bicycles, stations
- Amount of registrations
- Cost of subscription, penalty for losing a bicycle, fare levels
- Theft levels (i.e. bicycles stolen per year)
- Approximate cost per bicycle (typical indicator which includes cost of 
the stations as well)
- Financing/contractual arrangements
- Operating companies
- Contact person from whom we could get more information

It would truly be great to start compiling this information for African 
cities, since it seems many of us are ignorant about these systems. And 
of course, the answer would not be simple anymore but truly comprehensive!

Best regards,

Carlos.

-------------------------
On 07/10/2011 02:31 a.m., Eric Britton wrote:
>
> As Hannes says: "The answer is not simple". And yes, I think that's
> the key.
>
> The problem with the question is the key phrase "bike share systems",
> which automatically for most of us calls up shades of Vélib, BiXi and
> all the rest that operate on what we might call the "Western (or
> Northern) Model".
>
> But a far more relevant and useful question in this case is "How do
> people share bicycles in Africa"? And where?
>
> Now that is interesting.
>
> Eric Britton

-------------------------
> *From:*Hannes Schindler [mailto:hdschindler at yahoo.de]
> *Sent:* Friday, 07 October, 2011 05:21
> *To:* Gatnet - Gender and Transport Community of Practice
> *Cc:* Eric Britton; WorldStreets at yahoogroups.com;
> brachetti.filippo at gmail.com
> *Subject:* [GATNET] FW: Info African bikesharing sites
>
> The answer is not simple: There are for sure  bike share systems in
> East- and Southern - Africa. About North-Africa i don't know anything.
> West-Africa maybe, but not many.
>
> Hannes Schindler  - http://www.afriwheels.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Von:*Carlos F. Pardo <carlosfpardo at gmail.com>
> *An:* Gatnet - Gender and Transport Community of Practice
> <GATNET at dgroups.org>
> *Cc:* Eric Britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>;
> WorldStreets at yahoogroups.com; brachetti.filippo at gmail.com
> *Gesendet:* 23:45 Donnerstag, 6.Oktober 2011
> *Betreff:* [GATNET] FW: Info African bikesharing sites
>
> The answer is fairly simple: there are no bike share systems in Africa
> (in the "Velib" sense or any other generation of public bicycles with
> various stations). There are rental systems, but no bike share in
> itself... some unsuccesful projects have been tried out in Cape Town.
> I'm not sure if anyone has any other info.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Carlos.
-------------------------
> On 05/10/2011 10:48 p.m., Eric Britton wrote:
>
> *_____________________________________________________*
>
> World Streets
>
> Can anyone help Filippo in this? And if so, please copy it to us at
> World Streets since it would make a good story for our readers.
>
> Thanks all around,
>
> Eric
>
>
> Tel. +331 7550 3788|editor at newmobility.org
> <mailto:editor at newmobility.org>| Skype: newmobility
>
>  ---
>
> *From:*Filippo Brachetti [mailto:brachetti.filippo at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 05 October, 2011 16:31
> *To:* secretariat at newmobility.org <mailto:secretariat at newmobility.org>
> *Subject:* Info bikesharing sites
>
> Dear Eric,
>
> I am Filippo Brachetti, I am writing you from /Reforma/, a mayor
> Mexican newspaper. We are writing an article about bikesharing
> programs around the world.
>
> Could you help me finding some bikesharing programs in Africa?
>
> Thank you very much for your help,
>
> best,
>
> Filippo Brachetti
>