By Allison Beatty
In the past eleven months, the banana-yellow bikes of dockless bike share company ofo seem to have been popping up left and right in Bryan College Station. Since making their local debut on the campus of Texas A&M University in February, the bikes have become a cause of many complaints, both by those who use them and those who simply encounter them on streets and sidewalks regularly.
Over the winter holidays, the yellow bikes that have become notorious for showing up on sidewalks and in trees around Bryan College Station will be replaced with teal bikes from another source. Texas A&M has terminated its contract with yellow bike vendor ofo and is bringing in VeoRide to replace ofo. The university has cited ofo’s poor handling of customers and customer-support issues as reasons for the changes.
The logistics of bike-sharing on campus and in the surrounding city of College Station has proven to be complex to meet campus, user, city, and vendor goals. Both Texas A&M’s Transportation Services and city officials have acknowledged the different standpoints of each party, but both have said there is common ground to make a bike share program productive.
The failed ofo experience also offers lessons for the new vendor.
Details of how VeoRide will differ from ofo, including various “operational enhancements” the company is expected to bring, are still being finalized, but the company is in the process of applying for a permit with the city of College Station, according to a press release from Texas A&M’s Transportation Services.
The new service will operate in much the same way users accessed ofo - the rider will download an app, scan a QR code on the bike, and lock it in a designated area after the trip. Even with problems, ofo bikes filled a need. Since being introduced midway through the spring semester, ofo has more than 39,500 registered users in B/CS who have collectively taken more than 500,000 rides, according to Texas A&M’s press release.
Originally, bike share programs on campus were instated as a solution to combat the numbers of bikes left on campus, Transportation Services’ alternative transportation manager Ron Steedly said. Standard university procedure is to collect the bikes, hold them for 90 days, and notify their owners if they can. If a bike remains unclaimed, it is then sold, but the high costs of constantly impounding and storing bikes demanded a new approach.
“We had an abandoned bike problem,” Steedly said. “With campus growing like it is, I can’t expand bike parking; I’m kind of landlocked.” The main solution was to implement a bike-sharing system so more people could use a bike maintained by someone else, he said.
While ofo bikes served their intended purpose, both the city of College Station and frequent ofo customers have made their complaints about poor ofo customer support known.
“They don't respond to anything,” said Texas A&M sophomore Jose Rueda, who tried to get in contact with ofo earlier in the semester when he noticed higher prices. “From the moment they first raised the rates I've sent them probably 10 emails. They have not responded.”
Rueda complained that his prices went up from 50 cents an hour to $1.50 an hour, while his friends’ rates remained the same. When asked if he knew why this might be, Steedly claimed the prices had been raised for “non-regs” - that is, users that are not students at Texas A&M University - to discourage them from using the bikes after what he described as illicit attempts at financial gain.
Aubrey Nettles, special projects coordinator for the city of College Station, could not confirm any cases of insurance fraud occurring with the ofo bikes.
“I have never encountered that,” Nettles said. “That’s not something the city has been involved in.”
Nettles said the city had other concerns with ofo and a lack of city bike share regulations. When the yellow bikes showed up overnight in March, the city of College Station was not fully aware of the bike program’s implementation, Nettles said, adding the city was “not aware, not consulted.”
In response, a city ordinance was passed in August requiring any dockless bike share company operating within College Station to adhere to certain regulations.
“The ordinance allowed us to intervene,” Nettles said. “The city had no recourse. We did not have a seat at the table. Now we do.”
The city revoked ofo’s permit to operate on Oct. 12, then reinstated it on Oct. 26. The permit was revoked due to various infractions of the city ordinance, notably their loss of general auto liability insurance, according to an article in The Battalion. An ofo representative repeatedly contacted for this story did not respond.
The ofo contract will end, but current customers still have complaints the new vendor needs to address. Texas A&M freshman Will Othon, a former frequent rider who even purchased a semester riding pass, stopped because of poor service.
“A lot of times I use bikes they’re in pretty bad shape, so that’s why I stopped using them,” Othon said.
With no car or a bike in College Station, Othon said he bought the semester pass with the intention of using ofo to get around. Now Othon prefers the bus system.
“It’s more reliable with a time table,” he said. “When you’re using an ofo you never know if there’s going to be one outside your class.”
What ofo bikes did accomplish that buses cannot is collect and send certain data about their trips. With a few clicks of his mouse, Steedly is able to analyze it all for patterns and trends. One map showed just main campus, with yellow, orange, and red lines of various intensity, indicating the most frequently trafficked routes taken by ofo bikes. Steedly said this information can help the university put their dollars towards maintaining the sidewalks and streets that bikers are already taking.
“There was no way of knowing that before,” Steedly said. “I can better plan the infrastructure budget to meet needs.”
Texas A&M isn’t the only entity benefitting from the current bike share program in town. Both Steedly and Nettles said more mobility options allow more opportunity for local retailers, improves the fitness of those riding the bikes, and cuts down on traffic.
“The biggest pro is that they reduce traffic congestion, more cars off the roadway,” Nettles shares. She also noted the city has invested a lot in sidewalks and trails. “To ensure they are utilized is fantastic,” she says.
At the city level, Nettles and senior program manager Venessa Garza work with Steedly on matters related to dockless bike-sharing. While the city and the university had different standpoints on the main benefits of bike-sharing, both are able to agree it could be managed better.
“The program itself, I don’t think there is a con,” said Garza. “It comes down to how it gets managed and how the users use the bikes. If they use it poorly, it gives the program a bad name, but hopefully it’ll outlast that.”
According to the ordinance, all dockless bike vendors operating in College Station must accept responsibility to curb bike misuse.
“The city has taken the position that if a bike is left by a student it is the vendor’s responsibility to change the user’s behavior,” Nettles explains.
This can take the form of a fine, or, eventually, prohibiting the user from using the service. This is great in theory, but Steedly and Nettles say ofo failed to change user behavior. “Ofo is too chicken to fire [users],” Steedly says.
According to a June press release from the city of College Station, only 2 percent of rides are “non-compliant.” These are the bikes that end up outside of the designated geofence, not properly locked, or stuck in trees. But at 3,400 noncompliant rides, that’s a very visible community impact.
“This is some people’s only way of getting around,” Nettles shares. “The bikes are resources for visitors as well. I would hate to see it go away for bad behavior.
The city of College Station lists “poor customer response or service” in the ordinance as a potential reason the city might revoke a vendor’s permit to operate. The response and customer service complaints, however, can be a learning curve for next year’s VeoRide implementation. “We didn’t know what to look for a year ago,” Steedly says.
In the new year, all eyes will be on VeoRide to meet expectations.
“Retail, health, sustainability, less traffic, all those things are byproducts to me,” Steedly says. “I just want to get people places in a cost-effective way that works for them.”
