Idea for Offline Business
As most will know I am a keen cyclist. I'm not in a club, I'm not a speed merchant. I just enjoy cycling, and I prefer to cycle rather than drive. It's an environmentally conscious way to travel…
However, whenever I want to take a trip to my local city, I hardly ever cycle. The reason why? Well, there is nowhere to lock up a bike where I am happy that when I get back it will not be gone.
When I had a subsidised office in the centre of the city, it was easy to cycle and be secure as I could swipe my way into the building, then lock the bike inside the office (where I also had a bike anchor set into the floor). So, anyone wanting to nick my bike would have had to;
- get my swipe card
- know which office in the building was mine
- get my office keys
- get my bike lock key
Pretty much impossible. Of course, I no longer have the office which is why I don't ride into the city any longer. I could of course purchase a £50 2nd hand bike if I regularly rode into town, but what's the point. My bike is worth around £900 ($1800) including all the extra bits and bobs I have added to it, and yes, it is insured. Even so, it would take two or three weeks to replace on the insurance…
Onto The Big Idea…
Hire a large building in the centre of the city. Install bike racks/locks. Put in a café, maybe a bunch of internet connected computers. Toilets and showers. Etc etc - you get the drift. Maybe do the building up so that it is very environmentally conscious - collect rainwater for the toilets, solar power etc. Perhaps put in a bike shop and repair centre…
Now charge people to store their bikes! You'd get commuters who cycle to work, you'd get the people like myself who go in to do a couple of hours shopping.
I think the initial set up costs would be quite expensive, and the overheads might be quite high in terms of staffing. So this would need to be looked at in terms of producing a profit after X number of years.
I thin that this could be quite a good idea, particularly in the larger cities. I know that I would happily pay £2 or £3 to store my bike for a few hours.
If the owner could position the prices so that it is much cheaper than driving/parking and cheaper than public transport such as train/bus, I think it could be a winner.
What say you?
Comment by Oli — May 13, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/resources/cycleparking/parkstreet/
This is something I'd love to see in more places.
Unfortunatley you'd need a lot of cooperation from your local council - which is not the easiest thing in the world
In that example it seems to be 100% council run/owned, which means they can afford to let you park there for free.
In your example, how would you enforce the time they spent parked there? After they'd paid their £3, how would you check to see if they stayed for the correct amount of time?
Comment by ash — May 13, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
Great idea, Burt! It would really work in downtown Qingdao where the rush hour traffic is back to back for hours and theres a good chance your bike would get nicked if you left it anywhere.
I know that Singapore has a service like what you have mentioned, but no where near as advanced!
Comment by The Gent — May 13, 2007 @ 3:27 pm
I always thought this 'Bike Chain' was a brilliant idea. Maybe it's a project that will get off the ground sometime ('scuse the pun).
Comment by gary — May 13, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
Oli; that scheme does look good. And pretty simple to set-up/operate I should have thought…
I my example, how about having a subscription model (for commuters) ? Alternatively, how about using swipe terminals for payment. I'm not really sure. How about just with-holding the bike until the customer pays for their alloted stay? Or just having 1 fee per 24 hour period. Unsure.
Ash; Chinesia has a large number of bikes, eh? Would a facility in QD make any cash?
Gent; http://www.moderngent.com/articles/bikechain.php in case anyone did not realise he's linked in the URL field. It is a great idea. I can see a potential problem with it - would it damage the bike (I wouldn't like to hang my bike like that to fear of damaging my rims)…
Comment by SarahG — May 13, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
Does sound like a good idea. We go out cycling often in the summer (well when it doesn't rain), however I wouldn't feel safe going somewhere and locking the bikes up and leaving them out somewhere. To be honest I'm not happy with them in our back garden (no shed or garage) but we have no choice.
I would guess that something like this would actually go well with councils simply because they want less cars on the road and more cyclists. However it'll work better where there are more cycle opportunities. Luckily here we have either cycle paths or parts of the road for cyclists, so it's that tiny bit safer, but a lot of places don't and I think that is what this country lacks.
As for controlling payment, perhaps get some sort of electronic lock. You put your money in and key in a PIN number. Providing you're back in time your PIN works and you get the bike back. If it doesn't you need to pay the excess before your PIN works. Or alternatively you simply charge them when they return - much prefer this for the car, the whole pay and display restricts your retail therapy!
Comment by Oli — May 13, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
Sarah: Locking like that would be good for handling payment, though would add significant cost, and if anyone figures out how to break a bike out of one- they'd all need to be replaced
The big problem/investment really would be the space to build such a place - land in city centres isn't cheap, and anywhere else wouldn't be useful enough to be worthwhile.
Maybe there's money in adapting existing car parks to provide cycle facilities such as this? Get a few councils to agree to such a thing and watch the rest follow…
It's a shame, really, that this even needs to be discussed - nobody would ever consider buying a new top of the line car, then buying a cheap old banger for driving anywhere you'd have to let it out of your sight for five minutes
Comment by ash — May 14, 2007 @ 4:43 am
Burt said:
Ash; Chinesia has a large number of bikes, eh? Would a facility in QD make any cash?
Im not sure - QD is a little on the hilly side and QD people are a bit snobbish about cycling when most of the office workers can afford automobiles. One would have to do some serious market research before carrying it out.
I believe in summer it would be a hit, but in winter when that Siberian chill arrives, forget it. Perhaps in the more southernly business metropolis of Guangzhou it would be pretty much a cash cow 7 days/365. Well, until someone took your idea and ran away with it.
Comment by SarahG — May 14, 2007 @ 9:18 am
Oh I realise that, it just reminded me of what they have at the skating rink. I would imagine the place would be CCTV'd too so hopefully minimising crime. Or perhaps you need a special swipe card too to get in and out the complex/building. That way you'd have records of what was going on, afterall you don't want any old person wandering in and sniffing around the bikes!
Comment by gary — May 14, 2007 @ 9:35 am
I think the business would be unviable for most - it would take too much starting capital. As Oli says, the cost of land or even renting a large building is prohibitive. Adapting a Car Park is an interesting idea - but most City Centre carparks are owned by "NCP" which is a private firm. I imagine they would charge a hefty amount to sell a Car Park! Security wise, I think it would need CCTV and definitely at least one security guard at all times. CCTV is pretty cheap, but the cost of employing 4 or 5 security guards is high.
It's one of those businesses which depends upon;
~ winning the lottery
or
~ getting funding from somewhere
or
~ dragons den
Comment by Chance — May 14, 2007 @ 8:15 pm
It wouldn't work in the US- we are all way to fat and lazy to ride our bikes anywhere, and the ones who do actually ride instead of drive are labeled dirty hippies
Comment by gary — May 15, 2007 @ 9:14 am
The US has a car-culture which I think the rest of the world does not seem to have. It probably doesn't help that your country is so big…