by
Austin B-cycle | Oct 05, 2014
AUSTIN- Austin’s bikeshare system Austin B-cycle smashed bikeshare system records during SXSW, with heavy usage of the system throughout the 10-day festival. On Friday, March 14, it set a U.S. system record of 2,774 checkouts for an average of 10.1 checkouts per bike/day, besting the previous record in September 2013 of 7.2 checkouts per bike/day set by the successful New York City Citi Bike program.
“It’s clear that SXSW attendees love Austin B-cycle,” said Austin B-cycle Executive Director Elliott McFadden. “When SXSW Interactive, Film, and Music badge holders needed to hop from venue to venue, they chose Austin B-cycle in overwhelming numbers.”
During the March 7- 16 festival, Austin B-cycle had 17,724 bike checkouts totaling 22,744 miles ridden, averaging 6.4 checkouts per bike per day for the 10 day period. The Austin Convention Center B-station topped the list in overall checkouts at 1,828, followed by Davis at Rainey Street and City Hall B-stations.
“Not only are we thrilled by how attendees embraced our system, we are impressed by how well the B-cycle bikes, stations, and software held up to the high usage,” McFadden continued. “I also want to thank our stellar B-cycle staff for all their hard work, putting in over 12-hour days each day making sure the system ran smoothly.
The Austin B-cycle staff and volunteers did an additional 2,975 bike checkouts during SXSW to balance bike availability at B-stations and maintenance bikes. There were no major station outages during the 10-day period with the full system available for general use 24-hours/day.