Designing bike share Melbournians would want to ride
The Melbourne Bike Share comprises 600 bicycles and 51 docking stations. In its current format the scheme has failed to achieve the forecast ridership levels of five trips per bike per day.
According to Public Transport Victoria figures, in 2015-16 usage equated to an average of 282 rentals per bike per year, that is less than one ride per bike per day.
We started this project knowing Australia faced unique challenges for bike share including a lower residential density in catchment zones that reduce ‘latent demand’, fragmented cycling infrastructure and mandatory helmet laws. But we also knew that the scheme was a key player in the future of our sustainable city.
This six week project used human-centered design and included activities such as contextual inquiry, interviews, diary studies, surveys and a co-design workshop to understand barriers to bike share usage.
We engaged first time users, casual users, subscribers and non-users in our process. 54 people were involved in our intercept interviews, 64 responded to our online survey and 16 people—users and PTV staff— participated in our workshop sessions.
Our research into the current state of the Melbourne Bike Share found that a majority of local residents had not used the service. Using planning data and trends we identified four new groups that Melbourne Bike Share could target for greater use.
