Ford recognizes the growth of bike commuting and invests in GoBike progra
You would never expect a major automobile manufacturer to invest in bicycles, but that's exactly what Ford announced last month as they jump on the bandwagon for cities to offer more bicycles, more bike lanes and more bike parking racks as an alternative means of transportation.
Their investment in buying Chariot, a crowd-sourced shuttle service, and establishing Motivate, an urban bike sharing program, confused some investors and customers. But the investments are a timely decision that actually go hand-in-hand.
Part of Ford's future growth plan includes the subsidiary Ford Smart Mobility LLC, which is focused on investing in personal mobility beyond the traditional vehicle. The company can see the writing on the wall when it comes to bicycling as an alternative means of transportation and the increase in how cities are upgrading their bike lanes and bicycle parking racks.,
That's why they invested in Chariot, a company started in 2014. Chariot's shuttle buses run routes based on requests in the app; the ridesharing aspect provides an affordable commute for users.
As it expands beyond San Francisco, it could become a low-cost competitor to Uber. Ford says that they plan to expand to five more cities in the next 18 months, including one international city.
More bicycles will require more bike lanes and bike parking racks
By adding digital technology to their bikes, Ford is able to gather extremely useful data about how people get around and where they are going within the city.
This data informs Ford of potential new routes their shuttles can take. Ford also wants the bicycle and shuttle services to be integrated, allowing users to easily take the shuttle if it's raining, for example.
Ford GoBik
Motor vehicle trends are not as positive as they used to be. Millennials are owning cars less, opting for cycling, ride-sharing, and public transit instead.
Meanwhile, bicycle commuting is on the rise, increasing by more than 100% in some states. Statistics from the League of American Bicyclists show that states that are more bicycle-friendly have a more exponential increase in bicycle commuting.
The intrinsic benefits of cycling to work make it obvious why this trend is increasing. Biking to work is healthier both mentally and physically, cleaner for the environment, easier for parking and city planning, and much cheaper (if you drive a car, just take a look at your budget you'll see car payments, insurance, oil and upkeep).
This growing interest in alternative forms of transportation is a big part of the reason Ford is jumping on board to invest in ride sharing and bicycle sharing.
Expect to see Ford-branded bicycles in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, and beyond. The investment will boost the number of shared bicycles in the city from 700 to 7,000 by 2018, along with adding hundreds of bike-share stations. With the Ford Pass App, users can see where available bikes are located to make rental easier and avoid the need for wandering around, searching for a bike.
It will be interesting to see where Ford's new ventures lead, but one thing is certainâ€â€Âbike sharing is only growing.
With more people ditching the car keys and opting for cycling their commute or biking around the town, bicycles need to become more accessible for future growth.
An additional factor to remember is where to park these bikes â€â€Âwithout enough bike parking racks, people will be forced to leave their bikes unattended (increasing the already huge number of bikes that are stolen) or lock it to a tree or pole (which is less secure). However, adding bicycle racks certainly requires less capital than building car parking garages.
Cities can encourage cycling by providing enough bicycle parking racks and bike sharing services to their communities.
One thing is for certain, when you see a car company investing in bicycles, you can be sure a serious paradigm shift is taking place.