FAYETTEVILLE -- Managers behind the city's bike-share program are learning how to keep the wheels rolling while riders adapt to the new way of getting around town.
VeoRide, a citywide bicycle rental service, was activated about a month ago. Since then, staff members with the company, city and University of Arkansas have been collecting and analyzing data on where the bikes have been going.
At least 6,000 people have gone on more than 16,500 rides covering about 6,000 miles, according to the data. Each bike is equipped with a GPS tracker, which enables VeoRide staff to monitor activity.
Now that the launch is out of the way, the focus is on optimizing the service. For instance, managers figured most students would ride the bikes downhill from campus and leave them near downtown parking lots. They anticipated having to take the bikes back up to campus, and they do.
Sam Page, 22, of Rowlett, Texas, said the bikes have come in handy a few times, especially, after a Saturday night on Dickson Street.
Page said he hasn't had any issues with the service. The app is easy to use, and he's experienced no confusion about where to put the bikes after a ride, he said.
VeoRide is promoting bike hubs as places where riders can reliably expect to find a bike. The program is still dockless, meaning users don't have to pick up or return bikes to a certain spot, but about a dozen spots around town almost always have a bike waiting, said Andrew Miles, general manager.
"They're all places where we've seen people are picking them up with frequency, and there's a lot of foot traffic," he said.
An update to the mobile application riders use to activate the bikes is expected by the end of the year, Miles said. A new fleet of pedal-electric-assist bikes should be available next semester.
Bikes can be left most places within the geofenced service area, as long as they aren't in the right of way or on someone's private property. One way to ensure bikes will be available is to shrink the service area, said Dane Eifling, joint bicycle coordinator with the city and university.
The service area at launch basically covered the entire city. After looking at the data, managers could see there were parts of town where no one was taking a bike, Eifling said.
Having to retrieve the bikes from far-off places stretched VeoRide's resources and cut into the time someone else could be using the bike, he said.
"We had enough data to see where people wanted to ride and where they didn't," Eifling said. "Where they didn't want to ride, we don't need to devote resources to that. It's kind of a right-sizing."
A map of the revised service area is available on the city's website. It covers all of campus and downtown through the Razorback Greenway up to Lake Fayetteville.
Riders can still take bikes outside the service area, but if they leave them, the toll on their credit card will keep ticking. The bikes have to be returned to somewhere within the service area to stop the clock.
Metro on 11/05/2018