Questions by Mary Bradley; responses by Spencer Gober
Q: What was the impetus behind bringing LimeBikes to Belmont?
As a little background, the program is led by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), who approached Belmont in the fall of 2017 to gauge interest in participating in a regional, dockless bike-share system. There are 14 other municipalities participating: Arlington, Bedford, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, Newton, Revere, Waltham, Watertown, and Winthrop. MAPC observed numerous municipalities within the region piloting their own dockless bike-share programs and believed that if dockless bike-share was going to be successful and effective, it needed to be executed at the regional level. Through a public procurement process, Lime was ultimately selected to be the vendor that operated the system.
In the spring of 2018, the selectmen voted to confirm Belmont’s participation, and the first LimeBikes were launched in town in July. The program is intended to last for three years, with the contract between MAPC and the vendor (Lime) set for annual renewal.
As part of their contractual obligation, Lime provides each participating municipality with a data dashboard that provides insights into town-wide ridership. They also provide each municipality with raw data that can then be used by the town to conduct our own analysis.
Average Ridership
From July 20 to October 23, LimeBikes originating in Belmont were used for 690 hours by 1,065 unique riders who, on average, rode for 18 minutes and traveled just under a mile. (Belmont Office of Community Development, Planning Division, using raw data provided by Lime)
Q: What are some ridership highlights for Belmont as of October 23?
Total rides: 2,291 (2,445 if you count rides that occurred prior to Belmont’s launch in July)
Average rides per day: 24
Total unique riders: 1,065
Total distance traveled: 1,895.7 miles
Average distance: 0.83 miles
Average time per ride: 18 minutes
Average number of bikes in town per day: 24 (Belmont allows Lime to deploy no more than 34 bikes)
Using raw data provided by Lime, the Office of Community Development, Planning Division, created this map of regional destinations, with dots marking the end points of trips that originated in Belmont from July 20 through October 23. Dark lines indicate T routes and commuter rail lines. Some riders went as far as Newton, downtown Boston, and East Medford.
Q: How do you envision people using LimeBikes?
One of the primary goals of bike-share is to provide what’s called the “first mile/last mile connection.” Essentially, people living/working within a quarter-mile of a transit stop are more likely to walk, but those living just beyond typically need some sort of connection to incentivize/enable their public transit ridership. In Belmont, the average distance traveled is 0.89 miles, which indicates that many riders are using it as a “first mile/last mile” option. This is more evident on the map to the left, showing the concentration of rides ending along the Trapelo Road (MBTA Route 73) and Concord Avenue (MBTA 74/75) corridors, and at the Waverley Square and Belmont Center train stations.
Conversely, it is interesting to note the number of rides that are more regional in nature. This indicates that people are utilizing bike-share as an inter-municipal mode of transit, as MAPC anticipated. In fact, we observed bikes being ridden into town from neighboring municipalities weeks before Belmont launched.
Q: Is Belmont generating any revenue from our relationship with LimeBike?
The town is not currently charging a fee to Lime, and the town does not pay Lime anything to provide their service. The town reserved the right to negotiate a fee upon the one-year anniversary date of the launch. A dollar amount has not been set.
Q: Have there been any complaints about LimeBike?
The town is averaging less than one complaint per week, and most complaints are in regard to a bike being parked incorrectly—typically blocking the sidewalk. When we receive complaints, the town contacts Lime via their customer service as well as their local operations team. Lime is contractually obligated to remedy the issue within three hours of receiving a complaint.
I encourage residents to report bikes that are parked incorrectly and include the bicycle number. Lime is able to track the previous rider, and repeat offenders are banned from utilizing Lime in the future and may be charged additional fees. Additionally, Lime offered to provide the town with a customer service report so that we can properly monitor their response times to customer service complaints.
Guest Editor Mary Bradley is a Town Meeting member and the founder of Belmont Porchfest.
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