James Thomas has a bicycle design competition for an Asian bike share.
Entrepreneur Frank Chu in Singapore is piloting Isuda Bike Share. Isuda (易速达), which is Mandarin for “fast & easy,” uses portable kiosks that can be quickly moved to balance demand with supply. Unlike the kiosks used by Alta Bike Share, which are truck-movable and require some dismantling and assembly for the move, Chu’s kiosks are big metal boxes mounted on a trailer. You hitch it up and move it out to whatever new location you want, with the bikes still inside the kiosk.
This ultra-portability of the kiosk seems to drive some of the interesting design requirements in the bike share contest. Isuda currently uses “mini” style bikes similar to Dahon folding bikes and their innumerable knock-offs.
For more on the contest, read the contest announcment at Bicycle Design. I’m happy to see they have Mark Sanders on board as a contest judge. Mark has long experience combining bikes with public transportation, and Chu envisions a system that integrates bicycles as a part of the transit system.
Thanks for sharing this, Richard! I am very happy that Mark is participating again as well. Francis and Fook Fah also have experience with transportation (and transit) orientated bikes, so I am looking forward to discussing the design concepts with all three of them. The last design competition I staged was a lot of fun, but this one has potential to make a real difference, so I couldn’t be happier to play a part in it.