Hey guys. Tom here, and I'm doing something a little bit different today.
I just had a good, interesting conversation with Scott Harvey who is the operations
manager here in Calgary for Lime, the new bike-share program here in the city of Calgary.
Of course, Lime is in dozens and dozens of cities in North America and it's
interesting because they're new to Calgary, but they're also looking at
Calgary as a bit of an experiment in winter. The bikes are running all winter
long and we're trying some new things here so you might be interested in this
if you live in Calgary, but because of that experimental side of winter you
might be interested in this even if you live in another city as well. So we
talked about a lot of things, I got some questions from people on Twitter and I put
them all to Scott and we had a good conversation. So check it out.
Hey everybody. I'm joined today by Scott Harvey who is the operations
manager, yep operations manager, of Lime. Not Lime Bike, just Lime. Just Lime.
OK, which is the bike-share -- how would you describe the Lime these days?
So we define ourselves as a micro mobility company. So in Calgary, Lime is
just launching, and what that means is we have a cool new ebike sharing program.
It's new to Calgary. We were one of the last cities in North America, one of the
last midsize cities, to have any kind of bike share, so it's significant.
But there's some interesting things happening here, which I think are
probably relevant to people outside of Calgary as well. So let me
just ask first maybe: Why Calgary and why now?
Well, Calgary obviously being a city that has expended a lot of resources to build
a world-class biking infrastructure, so we recognize that's
an important part of Calgary's sort of vision to the future. So we want to be
part of that. Obviously, second of all, Calgary just was really the first city
in Canada to come to that place where we could enter as a company in a
really really thoughtful and mindful manner. You know, timing is
everything and really, we as a company said: "Do we want to launch," and we launched
October 30th. "Who launches a bike company in the middle of winter?" But we really
felt like Calgary was ready for it. Calgarians embraced it in a way that we
were, like, blown away by how much they embraced it. So we've seen some great
numbers come back in terms of ridership levels and things like that. And the
weather has co-operated amazingly. So, you know, we've continued to
be able to see those numbers go. What kind of numbers? Can you can
tell me up relative to other cities or anything? Sure, we you know we don't talk about
actual rider numbers, but what I can say is that on some of our best
days we saw ridership -- new riders, some days were up in like 300, 400 new riders per day.
OK, you mentioned earlier a
little trepidation about launching at the end of October, and there are not a lot
lot of cities that have bike shares that run all winter,
so why launch at that time? Well, obviously that was when we were, in
working with the city, we were able to launch. There is a huge process. There is,
you know, permitting and, you know, insurance and all of those things that
need to go into us operating within the city. And operating within those
constraints and needs that the city provides to us through that permit, so we
wanted to make sure all the i's were dotted and all the t's were crossed
before we went into service. And so that's just what that date looked
like. But with that, we also said we're gonna have a great opportunity to
test the product in the market, a winter market. We do operate in other winter
markets in the United States, in northern United States, so it's like Minnesota and
Detroit, places like that. So we already have an understanding of what winter
operation looks like with the product. But where we sort of have a question
mark is what happens when the weather is really cool. You know, those northern
States markets don't necessarily get that cold temperatures that we do. So,
you know, obviously, again we haven't had that opportunity with Calgary's weather (yet).
I don't know if you've seen, there's a bike just on the road that have mitts
on the handlebars now. So, we're doing some testing and trying to gather our
own information so that, again, we can be cognizant of opening in markets like, you
know, potential markets that are maybe in the future in Canada. Other
cities would, again, get that cold weather and do we want to stop operations in those
cities or are we going to want to continue? That is something that the city
can provide, ie, the bike infrastructure. Are there the bike lanes being
cleared? Small things like that. If that's happening in a city, we want to be
able to make it operate throughout the winter. So Calgary is just going to be a
really good test market as we continue to expand to Canada
that's where we're learning a lot of this information
right now. It's a bit of an experiment. I mean
I think it's an impressive thing to see the bar mitts on the bars, just as a
commitment to winter. So it really is an experiment? Yes, we know that
the bike operates really well in snowy conditions and in winter conditions.
Where the question mark comes from is performance. When we're
getting down into - 25 C, -30 C, how's the battery reacting at that level?
Are we going to see the loss of power? Are they okay? So you know, again
we're gonna want to test that theory. So fingers crossed, again,
as much as I hate to encourage that we like cold weather, but we are in Canada,
so at the end of the day cold weather is part of our our life and so we really
want to make sure that we're making decisions that are based on facts not on,
oh well, maybe we should not break for the winter in the city. We want to make
some real factual decisions based on reality and based on what's going on
here in Calgary. You launched in Calgary with ebikes. Is that
unique for the company? Most companies have both ebikes
and old-fashioned pedal bikes, right? Right now all we've got is ebikes. What's behind that decision?
So as a company we've come to the decision, not necessarily the decision,
but we know from ridership information that our
customers, when given the choice of a pedal bike and an electric bike, they
will choose the electric bike most. So from that point of view, when we decided
to come to Canada, we said let's put the electric bike in
because that's what customers are demanding. And yes we do have markets in
the United States and the one here in Canada that are ebike only. We're ebike only
because of it, but also because scooters aren't going to be part
of that conversation here in Canada for a little while. So we're going
to work within what we can, which is the ebike program. It's just a really
really good product. It's robust. It can handle,
we had some riders ride in that first winter blast of snow that we bought in
October. We had members of the city and they really said, the feedback we got, was
that, you know, the bikes perform really well in the winter. So we just really
feel like this product is the right product for Calgary too. That the
pedal bike is a great product, but, again, you know we wanted something that would
not only do well in the summer but also have potential to do well during the
winter. Because we, as a goal, we don't want to shut our
operations every year just because the winter comes. So it's it's about
finding those fact-based solutions to those problems and really
this is what Calgary is all about. And, again, we're the only location in Canada,
so Calgarians should be proud of that fact is about that we were the
first. We beat out cities like Toronto and Montreal.
All right, so everyone pray for some cold weather so we can get them some good data.
OK, thank you very much. Yesterday asked on
Twitter for questions from people. We got lots of really interesting ones, so I'm
going to fire those at you right now. OK, one is it about the zone. We
talked a bit about launching in Calgary with ebikes, and right now there's a
zone, much like Car2Go, where the bike needs to be parked inside a zone,
which is mostly the downtown area. Why that zone, and are there plans to expand it?
Absolutely. So, the city, between the city and Lime, we decided what
the winter zone would look like. And then we'll have a summer zone. So the winter
zone was restricted to the downtown core and the Beltline. And, you know, I think
that this is the first year of operations, so I think next year when
they go into winter operations the conversation will be a little different.
Because from a mechanical sort of user and ridership point of view, we missed
out on some communities that we think should have been included in that winter
operation zone. But, again, that's a great sort of learning curve for us as a
company and for the city so we can go back and have some really constructive conversations about what
that looks like, but then, come the summer, we will be full city operation.
The whole city will have bikes. And so our fleet will, I don't have to final
number right now, that's a continuing conversation with the city, but we will
see for the summer months we will see the increase in size. And there's
been some anxiety about people who inadvertently left their bike outside of
the zone. What happens? There's really
not any sort of, you know, punishment for leaving the bike outside of the zone. You
can ride the bike, the app, when you're riding the bike and do leave the
zone, the app will tell you you left the approved zone.
You know, "if you can please take the bike back to to the approve zone." But you know
ultimately for us we felt that rider experience was more important than
"You have to take that bike back into the zone." We have the resources
here in the city to make sure that those bikes that are going leaving the zone
for people to enjoy a bike ride that we can get those
products back into the zone in a very, you know, good amount of time.
Speaking of rules let's have the helmet conversation, which is always a tricky one. So just for
some background, Alberta does not have a mandatory helmet law for pedal bikes, but
it does for ebikes And Lime bike, unlike some jurisdictions where there is
a helmet law like Vancouver for example, where helmets are provided with the bike
share, they're not provided here. So that is also causing some anxiety
that's what I read from the questions I'm getting on Twitter. People
are worried about getting taking a ticket, they're worried about breaking the rules.
We're good Canadians, and nobody wants to break the rules. Now what are
you hearing? Are there tickets being delivered?
I haven't heard of any tickets being issued for riders on the electric bikes.
From the perspective of meeting that requirement, that is 110 percent one of
Lime's main goals is to, obviously, work within the constraints of
whatever the law or regulations are. And of course rider safety is of paramount
importance. So we're going to do what we can to encourage riders to
wear a helmet when they ride our product. It is mandatory, you know, so that is in
the in-app messaging. That's actually right on the bike itself, and then we're
going to continue as, you know, now that the weather is hopefully going to start
to improve or stay the way it has been lately, we're going to start to get more
and more involved in some community organizations and things like that to
help promote what we call Respect Your Ride. That's a program that was
launched company-wide and we're gonna again start to get that program here
embedded in the city, so that then people can have access to get a helmet from
us. So there's a lot of ways we can do that and also that, again, we can
start to have that conversation of why it's important to wear a helmet. We
really looked at that program in in British Columbia, and the company that
provides helmets with their rides and, you know, we just
felt from a couple of standpoints that wasn't the
direction that we wanted to go. We really felt that it was a much better and much
easier way to engage with the customers by having that conversation and by being
able to provide people with helmets should they need one. So again that
community engagement piece is really the key. So the way it stands now if you're
using a Lime ebike in Calgary, you should be bringing a helmet with you.
Correct. I mean we want the consumer to provide their own helmet
to meet the current regulation. From that perspective, again, there
is the ability as we sort of launch our community programs that we'll be able to
engage the customers that want a helmet and you know we can provide a
helmet, so we're going to continue to slowly evolve that process. But in the
meantime, you know, yes we're asking Calgarians to to be mindful of the fact
that that is a law and, you know, we really want to make sure that everyone's
abiding by that. And it's about safety right. That's the number one
priority. We want people to be safe when they ride the product, so you know it's
definitely -- I know people look at it as a hindrance, but at the end of the day,
if you're going to ride the product, and you know we know that our ridership
majority of our ridership comes from people that work downtown and are either
say, great example we're here at the public library the East Village is right
here, we've got a lot of riders that live in the East Village and come into downtown
to do their work. Those are the kind customers that are going
to ride our product. Average ride is about six to ten minutes, so you know, again, it's
it's people that are either at work and going for lunch or or thing going to a
meeting or somewhere else. So yeah, make sure you remember your helmet. Have it in
your office, have it in your home and just, you know, remember it when you ride.
Pedal bikes: are they coming? You've got ebikes in place now, in the summer when
things change, will it be available? No, again, we feel that the electric bike is the,
sort of, now the new standard for our locations and in
particular in candidates in ebikes. Which brings up another question I got
asked a lot too, it's about the cost. The cost for a bike -- a lot of people are
saying it seems expensive. It's similar to the what you pay on a Car2Go.
And they feel like they've ridden them in the States and they feel cheaper and
the pedal bikes a little bit cheaper too. So I've heard a lot of questions about
the cost. So that's the question: Why is it so expensive?
Obviously when someone comes to me and says well if I take two or three hour
bike ride it's gonna be a lot of money. You know, that's just not the customer we're
necessarily trying to drive after. Our customers are people that, again, that's
why downtown, in any of our markets, are usually the really big focus because,
again, it's people that are, say, going from one building and going several
blocks and don't want to get into a taxi or a cab and you'll want to add
congestion, so then they're looking for micro-mobility solutions that can that you know
take them where they need to be without it being, you know, adding to that problem.
So we feel that the price is is, you know, at where it's at currently,
is where it's at. But we're open to that conversation and you know the
more that we operate, again, this is the first time in Canada, first location in
Canada. It's a lot of firsts happening here in Calgary in that regard.
So we want to make sure that, obviously,
we hear what people have to say and that feedback is really crucial. So, you know,
we're going to continue to look at that. A couple a couple of last questions
from Twitter: When are you coming to Edmonton? Good question. Again, Edmonton is
one of those cities that is on the Lime list, and and certainly from the
perspective of working with the City of Edmonton that conversation is well in
hand and definitely happening. So you know Edmonton is still a question mark
in terms of exact dates and you know I'm gonna remain very tight-lipped in terms
of the date. I don't have a date so it's not even that I'm not saying it. But you
know from the perspective of Edmonton it's definitely on the list that's
definitely going be a city we're going to want to operate in. And I heard you say
no scooters in the works in Canada? No scooters in Canada as it
stands right now. So from a legal standpoint there are rules about
electric scooters being ridden on public property, so currently the law
across the land -- each province is slightly different -- but across the land
is that electrified scooters are treated as a motor vehicle and so by law they
cannot be ridden on public property, unless there are certain stipulations
that they meet. And so you know from that perspective, Lime is working with
municipalities to engage in that conversation of when that law was, when
those laws were put on the books and in terms of what our product looks like so
that's an ongoing conversation with most municipalities or provinces.
Well, that's it. Thank you very much. Welcome Lime to Calgary. I've been
out there riding it a lot, so I hope to see lots of you out there as well.
And thank you Calgary . Yes, lots to come.