Bicycle sharing system loses ridership in city

According to Greater Chennai Corporation data, average rides has come down to 157 per day from July 23 to July 30. However, average rides per day from February 27 to July 30 was 236. On the other hand, the average registration per day has increased in the last week of July.

The civic body had appointed a Hyderabad based SmartBike firm to implement the system in the city and presently, the service provider operates 265 bicycles across the city.

Despite the dip in average rides, the Greater Chennai Corporation has taken steps to set up 50 more dock-less cycle stations apart from the recently inaugurated facility on Thyagaraya Road in T Nagar. As on July 30, there are 27 cycle stations in the city.

The civic body has identified 378 locations across the city to set up bicycle stations and decided to deploy 4,976 bicycles to boost non-motorised transport and provide last-mile connectivity.

Bicycle sharing is operated on design, built, finance and operate (DBFO) basis for seven years. Users should pay Rs 5 per hour through a mobile application and Rs 9 would be charged for every next 30 minutes. “All the bicycles and bicycle stations are expected to be operational by the end of this year,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

As the tourists and beachgoers use the bicycles placed at six spots on Marina, 571 rides were marked during the week against the overall ridership of 1,045 registered in other cycle stations.

On July 28 (Sunday) alone, 216 rides were taken on Marina and on July 27 (Saturday), 107 rides were taken. In total, only 339 rides were taken across the city on July 28.