Bicycling

Bike-o-Meter gives snapshot of bikesharing worldwide

by Steve Offutt   •   October 30, 2010 2:20 pm

A new app called Bike-o-Meter provides fascinating real-time data on bikesharing systems from around the world.

If you haven't already seen the interactive, animated map that shows station activity for Capital Bikeshare stations, be sure to check it out. Bike-o-Meter uses the same data, but presents it differently.

Each dial shows the percentage of total bikes in use at that particular moment in time.

It is not able to differentiate between bikes that are actually being ridden and those that may be in transit for relocation or taken out for servicing. However, it uses the maximum number of bikes in the system within the last 24 hours, rather than the advertised total number of bikes owned by the service, as the denominator in the calculation.

Here's a bigger screenshot showing 2.8% of Capital Bikeshare's bikes in use at 1:04 pm on Wednesday, October 27.

Barcelona's usage rate at 7:00 pm was 22%. There were more than 4500 bikes available in Barcelona at that time, meaning almost 1000 bikes in use.

Steve Offutt has been working at the confluence of business and environment for almost 20 years, with experience in climate change solutions, green building, business-government partnerships, transportation demand management, and more. He lives in Arlington with his wife and two children and is a cyclist, pedestrian, transit rider and driver.