A Bixi Bike Stand (Image: Dario Ayala)
During our afternoon orientation with the team from Festimania, we were introduced to the concept of Bixi.
Now some of you may have heard of B-Cycle, the U.S. version of Bixi being championed by ad-legend, Alex Bogusky. But I’m betting many of you have never heard of either the bikes or Bogusky, and even less have ever had first-hand experience with the short-term bike rental concept. So let me paint the picture.
The Bixi bikes are placed in locked stands throughout the city. So anytime you need to get somewhere, you pay a small fee at the computerized kiosk attached to racks (or, like us, insert your month pass bar into the slot directly by the bike) and the bike is automatically unlocked and ready for use. Then when you reach your destination, you just find the nearest stand (they are literally everywhere) and lock up the bike.
Simple.
For me, the most intriguing aspect of the whole concept is the computerization. The networked stands automatically manage the transactions and track the bikes. It knows when you take a bike and when you return it. And all this data is fed live to the web for use in mobile apps. So no matter where you are in the city, you can check your phone, see whether there are bikes available at a particular rack, then follow the directions to that rack.
Street decorated for DiverCité (Image: Bob Knorpp)
But technical stuff aside, we found Bixi to be the nearly perfect way to see the city. It got us out of the car and freed us to quickly get from one festival to another without the hassles of traffic or parking. And when we arrived at events like the locations of the Divers/Cité festival, we just dumped our bikes and left them for someone else to use, without a worry of having to find a place to lock them up.
Clearly, this is more of a commuter concept, though. As a sightseeing tool it was a bit stressful, considering the month pass only paid for 30 minute increments, so we were constantly feeling the pressure to find a rack and trade bikes before we got hit with an additional hour charge. But from the perspective of a person trying to escape the metro and get some fresh air on the way to work or shop, it was brilliant.
Both Bixi and B-Cycle have a long way to go toward reaching full adoption in other cities. But seeing it so widely used and appreciated made me fully appreciate the idea for the first time. It’s definitely going to make a huge difference in the way we experience the festivals during the week.
Bixi Bike (Image: Bob Knorpp)
Robert Knorpp is host of The BeanCast Marketing Podcast at thebeancast.com and is President of The Cool Beans Group, a marketing strategy consultancy based in New York City. He likes laughing even more than breathing. You can follow the madness on Twitter at twitter.com/BobKnorpp.
