01 Sep WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL_Optimised bike sharing system
Bike sharing systems have become increasingly popular in urban environments but are not without challenges such as costly maintenance, vandalism and theft. Optimised design components of the Urbikes address such concerns.
Project Urbikes
City Barcelona, Spain
Challenge Increased need for quick access to public transportation, costly maintenance of bicycles and bike sharing facilities, vandalism and theft.
Solution Optimised design components that prevent bicycles from breaking and easily accessible rental system that is powered by solar energy.
Bike sharing systems have become increasingly popular in urban environments since they were first introduced in 2005 as Vélo’v in Lyon, France. Such systems can make daily commutes easier, particularly when they are combined with existing public transportation networks.
The most common problem with public bike sharing is maintenance: problems range from broken chains to punctured wheels, and stolen parts. Urbikes is a 4th generation bike-sharing system that has been designed to provide an optimised experience for the rider/user.
The conventional chain transmission mechanism has been replaced by a drive shaft, a technology that was first introduced in the 19th century. The drive shaft requires less maintenance and does not trigger gearshift errors. Furthermore, Urbikes uses filled tires that are non-pneumatic and therefore cannot be punctured.
Theft of bicycle parts being a common problem in cities, each component of the Urbike is conceived at a non-standard size in order to reduce the likelihood of having those removed.
The Urbikes operate from pre-existing parking metre systems and are fully integrated on an existing infrastructure. Each parking metre can operate a maximum of 14 bikes. This is the first model of an urban public bike system that functions as a component of a pre-existing parking operating system.
Designer Eduard Sentís
Publicado por WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL (leer publicación original)
