Bicycle sharing is new fitness trend in city

The bicycle sharing project launched by the Greater Chennai Corporation has lately become a part of the fitness regime of Chennaiites besides providing last-mile connectivity and promoting non-motorised transport.

Ranjit Srivastava, vice president (marketing) of SmartBike Mobility, said that the ridership has increased after the operation timings were changed to make the bicycles available from 5 am to 10 pm. Earlier, these were available between 8 am and 8 pm. “Ridership attains peak from 5 am to 8 am and 5 pm to 9 pm, especially at Marina. This is mainly due to fitness enthusiasts using bicycles,” he said.

He added that as many as 487 riders had used the bicycles on Christmas day from seven cycle stations near Marina Beach.

On average, around 600 persons use SmartBikes on weekdays and around 1,000 riders on weekends. Of the total 1,000 ridership recorded during weekends, 500 riders are taking bicycles from Marina Beach. Most of the riders are between the age group of 18 and 40 years.

“Most of the riders at Marina are tourists while IT professionals use our service on Old Mahabalipuram Road and East Coast Road stretches. Riders in Anna Nagar, Shenoy Nagar and other areas mostly use the bicycles for the last-mile connectivity. Interestingly, riders from Anna Nagar use bicycles to reach Marina Beach on weekends. Ridership is higher in these areas on weekdays,” Ranjit said.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that around 50 to 60 per cent of SmartBike users are regulars. Presently, SmartBike Mobility that operates the cycle sharing project on behalf of Chennai Corporation under Smart City Mission has already created as many as 50 dockless cycle stations across the city and 500 bicycles are in use.

According to the DPR the city will get bicycle stations at 378 locations for a fleet of 4,976 bicycles.

In the initial phase, the Corporation had given clearance for 68 dockless bicycles stations, and the service provider opened 50 of them. Now, they are making arrangements to open 18 more bicycle stations. Also, SmartBike Mobility has requested the civic body to accord permission to open stations at 31 new locations, including Ambattur, Besant Nagar, Adyar and others.

As of now, the civic body collects Rs 5 per hour through a mobile application and Rs 9 would be charged for every next 30 minutes. Users could hire bicycles on a daily basis and also on a monthly and quarterly basis.

Eyeing more ridership, SmartBike Mobility has decided to introduce battery-operated bicycles in the city. The new e-cycles will enable riders to make long-distance rides.

“The e-cycles will be introduced by the end of January and the move will increase ridership by at least three times. Initially, we will bring 500 e-cycles,” Ranjit said.

The batteries retrofitted with the bicycles would charge themselves while the users ride the bicycles, as mechanical energy would be converted into electrical energy. The electrical energy would make the bicycle riding easy and fast. They would clock up to 20 kilometres per hour.