Bikeshare is coming to Metro Manila
By: Julia Nebrija
Tags: Bikeshare, Metro Manila, Cities, Urban Planning, Mobility

The first is station density. We recommend 10–16 stations per square kilometer, about a station every 300 meters or so. This helps ensure there’s a station within a convenient walking distance from where population centers are.

The next metric is bike density or bikes per resident. We recommend 10–30 bikes per 1,000 residents in the service area, so you not only want to have stations that are accessible but you want to have enough bikes at those stations that people can reasonably assume there will be a bike at the station when they need it.

And the last one is the coverage area. That helps ensure there are enough origins and destinations within the coverage area to ensure that system use will be relatively high. So with this metric it’s not just about the destinations but also the origins and how convenient it is for people to get to those stations to start their trip.

All three of these metrics together help to create a foundation of reliability. Even if you don’t know exact station locations, you can be reasonably confident that there will be a station close to you at both your origin and your destination.

All three of these metrics together help to create a foundation of reliability. Even if you don’t know exact station locations, you can be reasonably confident that there will be a station close to you at both your origin and your destination.

JN: In the Philippines, there’s a modest budget for a bikeshare program as part of the COVID-19 emergency response fund. This is great because the government is recognizing the importance of active mobility, especially during the pandemic. However, the limited budget will only cover a pilot phase, which might not be enough to reach the recommended coverage area you just mentioned. What would you want to see from the inaugural phase of a bikeshare system?

DY: It is great to see that cities are taking advantage of the interest in active mobility and are thinking of investing in bikeshare as a result. Even if you are not going to establish the full coverage area as part of a pilot or inaugural phase of the system, you still want to think about the same ideas, like what modes are people taking and what type of trip do you want them to take using bikeshare?

Bike commuters, Metro Manila, Philippines. Photo Credit: Cycle Matters Facebook Page

You also want to think about the role and opportunity of bikeshare to replace existing trips or create new trips. Are you encouraging people to access public transit like a BRT or a metro where bikeshare serves as a feeder? Or are you encouraging more people to cycle in which case you want to place stations near existing cycle lanes and perhaps more recreational places like waterfronts or open streets or other active mobility initiatives that are part of the COVID-19 response, like temporary cycle lanes.

In an inaugural phase, if you aren’t able to establish the full coverage area, it’s important to think of what types of trips you are trying to generate and placing stations in a way that enables you to do that.

In an inaugural phase, if you aren’t able to establish the full coverage area, it’s important to think of what types of trips you are trying to generate and placing stations in a way that enables you to do that.

JN: In some of these scenarios we might not have baseline data for the origin destination, either because it didn’t exist before, we never had it, or because the types of trips may be changing especially during the pandemic where we see more social mobility rather than the residential to downtown commute. Destinations may also be different during the pandemic with more trips to hospitals or grocery stores for instance. How do we plan in real-time for where stations should be located if we don’t have that information readily available?

DY: It could be challenging to think about that especially with a station-based system which inherently feels inflexible. Once you place those stations, depending on the model, they can be movable, but that can create additional logistical needs. So I think this is a unique opportunity to implement a bikeshare system given some of these shifts in travel patterns. I think the inaugural phase will inevitably test the viability of those locations, which you can use as your baseline to understand what those trips are looking like, which stations are seeing a lot of use and which aren’t, and having the flexibility to relocate those lower use stations as part of subsequent phases.

There’s also an opportunity to think about the type of bike being used. I’m thinking primarily about station-based systems in the United States and Europe that are starting to use a dockless hybrid so bikes can be left at the station or they can be locked outside of the station to a sign post or other street furniture. The hybrid gives the best of both worlds- the reliability of the station and picking up a bike outside the stations.

JN: What are the common misconceptions or myths you often hear about bikeshare? Even though we’ve seen so many good examples and successful models all over the world, I’m sure there are still some misconceptions about bikeshare.

DY: I think a big one is that bikeshare is only for young, wealthy men. And while bikeshare ridership in some countries can reflect that demographic, what this really points to is an access issue. You may not see people who look like you riding bikeshare because it’s harder for other demographics to access bikeshare, whether that’s not feeling physically fit enough to ride a bike in general or being able to afford a bike share membership. There are ways to address access issues whether it’s integrating e-bikes so a wider variety of ages and abilities can access bikeshare or reducing membership fees for lower-income individuals. Addressing and ensuring there’s a wide variety of bikeshare users helps combat that misconception.

There are ways to address access issues whether it’s integrating e-bikes so a wider variety of ages and abilities can access bikeshare or reducing membership fees for lower-income individuals.

Another interesting misconception is that only people who don’t own a bike will use bike share or that if you already own a bike, you don’t need bike share. We’ve seen across a lot of bikeshare systems that have been operating for a number of years that bike owners use bikeshare because it’s flexible for one way trips or because they use it to connect to a bus and they don’t want to have to bring it on the bus. There are a lot of trip types and use cases that benefit personal bike users.