Could seamless regional shared micromobility services become a reality across Metro Vancouver someday, and would such systems spanning numerous municipal borders be feasible?
Currently, TransLink is hoping to find a consultant to help answer that question.
The public transit authority has launched a procurement bidding process to seek a shared micromobility company to conduct a study on how there could be a “regionally integrated expansion of shared micromobility” across Metro Vancouver.
Across the globe, shared micromobility services are overwhelmingly bike, e-bike, and e-scooter share systems.
The micromobility company would provide TransLink with a vision for improved regional integration of such services, and determine the feasibility of a regionally coordinated system, which includes considerations regarding geographic scope, fleet size, business model, funding requirements, and infrastructure.
The study’s findings would be used for future planning purposes only for the potential future expansion of bike, e-bike, and/or e-scooter share systems across Metro Vancouver over the next 10 to 20 years. The Request For Proposal (RFP) for bid submissions closes on August 16, 2024.
“TransLink is seeking micromobility providers to share their visions for how shared micromobility services could be expanded throughout Metro Vancouver. This information will be used as part of our future transportation planning,” TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain told Daily Hive Urbanized.
Mobi bike share station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
At the moment, shared micromobility services across Metro Vancouver are highly fragmented and hodge podge, as municipal governments have typically conducted the practice of approving and regulating individual services operating within their own jurisdictional borders.
In April 2024, the City of Surrey launched its first e-bike share service within the Surrey City Centre and Guildford Town Centre areas under a partnership with Bird Canada.
Since 2023, Lime and Neuron Mobility have operated e-bike and e-scooter share services within Coquitlam City Centre on behalf of the City of Coquitlam. And since 2022, Lime has operated similar e-scooter and e-bike share services for the City of Richmond.
However, there are also some cross-jurisdiction exceptions.
Lime operates a North Shore e-bike share service within select areas of the City of North Vancouver, District of North Vancouver, and District of West Vancouver through an original contract spearheaded, arranged, and managed by the City of North Vancouver. It gradually expanded on the North Shore following its initial launch in the Lonsdale area in 2021.
Before the end of Summer 2024, Lime will also launch a e-scooter share service within the City of Vancouver, following Vancouver City Council’s approval earlier this month of a five-year contract with options to extend to up to 20 years. The municipal government will not incur any of the upfront rollout and ongoing operational costs, which will be higher for Lime given the City’s unique requirement for the use of docking parking locking stations as an enhanced safety measure.
This follows the Squamish Nation’s announcement in June 2024 that Lime will introduce its e-bike share services across its various reserves.
Artistic rendering of Lime’s e-scooter share locking docking parking stations and devices for Vancouver. (Lime)
Lime e-scooter share devices. (Joseph Hendrickson/Shutterstock)
The region’s largest shared micromobility service is Mobi Bike Share, which first launched in Vancouver in 2016 through a long-term contract with the City of Vancouver. At the time, the municipal government provided the service with a $5 million startup investment. Over the years, Mobi significantly expanded across Vancouver, and introduced e-bike devices in 2023 — the same year it also expanded e-bike share to the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus.
By the end of 2023, Mobi had 2,000 regular bikes, 600 e-bikes, 248 stations, and 4,665 docks. Mobi recorded its best year ever in 2023, when it saw a total of 1.2 million rides — up from 977,000 in 2022, representing a year-over-year increase of 23%. The number of unique riders on the system in 2023 also reached 107,538.
Mobi’s expansion complements UBC’s existing dockless HOPR Bike Share service, which operates within the campus boundaries only.
Additionally, over the past year, BCAA’s Evo Car Share service has expanded its Evolve e-bike share services to Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby Mountain campus and downtown New Westminster.
An op-ed published by Daily Hive Urbanized in June 2023 outlined the need for TransLink to oversee the launch and regulation of a seamlessly integrated regional bike share service.
Early in 2024, TransLink began testing the use of a new smartphone app that combines TransLink’s public transit services, Modo Car Share, Evo Car Share, and Mobi Bike Share onto one digital platform. This includes trip planning across the multiple modes, as well as accessing real-time information about vehicle and bike locations. It offers simple booking and payment methods, easy registration for the shared mobility services of Evo, Modo, and Mobi, and an upgraded Compass Card to access public transit, Evo and Modo vehicles, and Mobi bikes.
Mobi bike share. (Vancouver Bike Share)