1st Fleet production: a key goal achieved in P2 is the validation of the technology and of the whole bike sharing model at the end of Phase 1 of the pilot, performed on a fleet of 50 bikes (powered by BIKE+ sharing kit integrated with the Smart Lock system) made available by Darfon mobility.
The test was implemented on a small community of people; the work performed on the bikes foresaw the assembling of the Smart Wheel, of the Bike+ Sharing box and of the complete bike, and quality checks have been carried out through mechanical, back-up battery, firmware and functional testing.
2nd fleet production: the fleet of bikes used for the project validation was extended up to 350 units; no major mechanical or electronical issues have been raised, so that the final product BoM and assembling procedure have been confirmed. Minor adjustments were introduced so as to enhance productivity. In particular, components such as the lock line and the PTFE membrane for buzzer were removed from the final system, while the PCB driver and main board, the support frame /rack, the anti-rotation kit and the ADV panel were reviewed.
BITRIDE APP 2.0: P2 of the project saw the prosecution of the work aimed at the release of a 2nd version of the BITRIDE App, starting from the results of the tests sessions arranged with end-users during the pilot phase 1. Great effort was put by ZEHUS in activities related to bug fixing, service refinements and improvements of the APP, starting from the needs and requirements of the users involved in the first round of tests. While the first version of the APP was intended to take care of the basic renting process (bike locating, unlocking, riding, etc.), BITRIDE APP 2.0 introduced full scale project features like users registration, payments, wallet and points management. The users’ experience showed that the App is friendly, intuitive, functional and that the overall service can be defined more than satisfactory.
Parking issues, payment details, defects and general rental process details reported by the users following surveys and interviews have been refined, achieving an overall high quality of the complete bike sharing service.
Front-end web platform: the company designed and developed a web platform for the bikes’ fleet management; the tool allows to see all the bikes released in the street, detect their state of charge, their location and their last user. Several refinements and additions were necessary, respect to the first pilot, to improve the web interface, expand the service area and the parking areas, as well as the number of bikes available. The platform represents a key result of the BBS project as it will add value to the whole set of company products.
Pilot monitoring: thanks to the analysis of the quantitative data provided by ZEHUS during the experimentation, the positive and the critical aspects of the BITRIDE service developed for Phase 1 could be evaluated.
Considering the objectives of Ph1, an overall positive consideration was possible, and thanks to the engagement of the users participating in the test, the 1st phase of the pilot project gave significant results and suggestions. The most critical aspects of the service were about the malfunctioning in the locking/unlocking process and the precision of the GPS, which were actually tackled by the team of developers.
Ph2 implied the deployment of further 250 bikes into a broader area of the city. The service was accessible to citizens, and the pilot was planned so as to carry out the following activities:
- Selection of the urban area for the pilot
- Design of the pilot project
- Definition of the users’ community
- Evaluation of the best strategy for the pilot monitoring
The pilot projects performed allowed to deeply explore the bike sharing panorama and trends characterizing the mobility sector. The experimentation obtained good results, and objectives were successfully achieved. In fact, despite deviations caused by the introduction of two free-floating bike sharing services in the city and consequent limitations imposed by the Milan municipality to the Service Area of Ph2, the company was able to set-up two pilot phases and test key service features necessary for technology debugging and the refinement of the service model, at the same time raising the interest of the involved community.
