Question

How critical is New York to PBSC ? What could be done to address the NY issue and why ?(Bixi goes to NY)

Answer 1

PBSC is very Critical to New York even today.

A Canadian city is the headquarters for PBSC Urban Solutions- that is Bixi, the company that manufactures the bikes and stations for one of the most prevalent bike-share systems now in use in cities across the world. PBSC’s bikes and stations are the backbone of some of the biggest and most high-profile systems out in the world especially New York.

Bixi bike-share, one of the PBSC ventures which were launched in 2009, was the largest system in North America until Citi Bike was launched in New York in 2013. Citi Bike is the nation's largest bike share program, with 12,000 bikes and 750 stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Jersey City. It was designed for quick trips with convenience and affordable way to get around town.

When Montreal introduced its bike-sharing system in 2009, city officials simply wanted to make commuting easier. The city would be blanketed with almost 10,000 bike stations to fill in gaps not covered by trains, subways and buses.

But when losses started happening, The company blamed its current cash-flow difficulties on the rapid expansion of its international business, in which it sells systems that are then managed by other entities for all the losses which affected the cities like NYC but they claimed it to be temporary.

PBSC’s growing pains are ongoing even as bike-share is being adopted by more and more cities around the globe.

While the cash problem was temporarily resolved with loans from the city, management’s attention was soon distracted by a pricing spat with 8D Technologies, the supplier that created the software for Bixi. The city-owned company cut off its contract with 8D and developed new software on its own for future systems, including Citi Bike in New York. That hurried software was a disaster, not just because it was full of problems, but also in terms of customer relations.