 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Okay, we're back, we're live, we're happy to be here. It's a Monday, it's a beautiful day, I'm Jay Fiedel, I'm happy in my skin. Okay, this is Lori McCartney, and McCartney, and she's happy in her skin too. Very happy in my skin. Yeah. She's the CEO of Bike Share Hawaii, which is a very important organization. An organization dedicated to sort of remaking our city and ultimately our state. And it's done amazing things that opened in July, July 1, I want to say. And you, as an executive decision, you put all the bikes out there, everywhere, you deployed them everywhere, and you can hardly miss them now in the Honolulu landscape. So how has it been, Lori, since then? Well, since we launched on June 28, just two days before the 4th of July, it's been going really well. Because we were planning for this, it took us almost five years to get here, I've been involved in it for three years. So there were a lot of things that we did to try to make sure that once we got there, it was going to work. And but still, you put it out, you put them out and you go, is anybody going to ride them? Are they going to be used? And really, really pleased to see Honolulu take up and adopt Beaky as a way to get around, a way to, you know, have some fun, and a way to get exercise. Yeah. And when we met, I mean, we met here at this table, you and me like this, I was so impressed with the fact that it was like skiing. You know, you see the hill in front of you, you know the risks, and you go, you go right down that hill, and you do it, and you find that you were right, your executive intuition was right, and people come from near and far to ride those blue bikes. It's really great, and it's not just me, there's so many people that were involved in this, and the process was not easy, but it was a, it was a very good reason. You know, in Honolulu we have, you know, I drive a car, I like to drive, you know, I'm not like only ride a bike type of person, but I think in Honolulu we have the opportunity to get around different ways, and we need more choices. And I would spend a lot of time in San Francisco, for example, I lived there for almost 20 years, and I know going to work, I could walk, I could take a taxi, I could take a cable car, I could take a bus, I could take transit, I could add all these options, options, you know, and I came here and it's like, OK, what are my options were limited, so this provides another option for folks. And you do ride a bike, can you talk about that? Yeah, I ride bikes a lot. I ride beaky almost entirely, and my business day is beaky. Yeah, no discount, I like that bike. No discount, my belief has always been in any job I've been in is to be a consumer, be a user of the system, experience everything that everybody else experiences, and so I get overage charges, I'm on the $15 a month plan, which is a very popular plan, although our most popular plan is the free spirit. Then I get to see how that works, why did I get an overage, oh well, you know, my ride was over 30 minutes, and my rides are almost always 12 minutes, but sometimes I get excited, and I call the call center, if something goes on, I call them to see what's going on, I think it's really important when you do something to really live in it and be part of it, and then you can make it better. That's what you find out, it's like that TV show about the boss, you know. Oh, Undercover Boss, yeah, I'm out of Cover Boss, I'm out there, this is Lori, what's going on? So what are the plans, I mean I'd like to know because that $15 plan sounds really good for somebody who just wants to get around point to point around the city. It is a really good plan. The good thing about it is, if you look at our average ride times, its average is 20 minutes for each trip from one station to another station, but it's higher for visitors because they're not really so destination focused maybe, and then for residents it's just around 12 minutes. So 30 minutes is plenty of time to get in between, you know. So for me, I ride 2 to 6 to 8 times a day on Beaky, but my cost is always $15, except like I said for that time when I, $15 for a whole month, for a whole month, $15 for the month? Right, for a month. So you can go a lot of places if you stay within that for no more than $15. And even when I go over and I get a 350 charge because I've gone over, it's like it was still 1850 for a whole month. So what we're seeing people do is they start with our free spirit pass, a lot of them, which is $20 for 300 minutes of riding time, which is 5 hours, that you use in any increments you want. Her day. No, forever, the minutes never expire. Okay, okay. Yeah, so that's what's cool about it. It's like I have a bank of minutes, and then every time I ride, I subtract from the 300 minutes, however many minutes I use. Six hours. Five, yeah. Five hours, that's a lot. Yeah, so it's funny at home. My husband has the free spirit plan, and I have the $15 plan, and we're trying to decide which one's the best value. They're both, because he's like, okay, if I calculate each of my trips are eight minutes to go back and forth where I go, I think free spirit plan might be better value. Yeah. And I'm thinking, no, no, I want the flexibility. It's really interesting. Yeah. So they're both great values. Yeah. And we see people start with a free spirit, because then they're not sure what their right patterns are going to be. And then we've seen the $15 and $25 monthly pass, which I could talk about, become more popular as people look at their history, which they can do on the website, and see, oh, all my trips are 12 minutes, and I ride a lot. Maybe the $15 monthly plan's better. I'm reminded of Verizon, you know, my phone and all. If you call them, they'll tell you, well, you know, your average minutes is this and that. You're in the wrong plan. Yeah. Why don't you shift plans? Yes. You could do software like that, couldn't you? Yes, we could. And we do actually call people and ask them and look at it. We don't want to be too invasive, and people have different reasons for doing different things, and we're brand new still. But we do see people naturally doing that, and we do have that suggestion for people. So what about the $25 plan? So 25 is just like the 15, and you probably will never have an overage charge, because it's unlimited 60-minute rides. So I could ride a gazillion times every day in a month, and as long as every trip was under 60 minutes, it would still be $25. So one practical problem, and I have to admit that I haven't actually taken a big deal out. I'm going to take you out. I told you, though, in my youth, I rode to work every day for years and years, and I raced, and I raced up on Tantalus where they had that drag racing thing. And I went up there every Thursday morning, a whole bunch of us would go up, top and bottom, and I went around the Waimanalo side, you know, once a week also. Anyway, that's my riding. But query now, so right outside our door here at Pioneer Plaza, there's a biki stand. So I get in the biki, I got to put my card in, I got it registered there. I take the biki, I take the biki down to, I don't know, university. Yeah, okay. How do I know where the next biki stand is? Because I got to put the bike back. Right. How do I know where that is? Well, we've got something for you. Okay, all right. We have a, yeah, exactly. We have a biki app, actually, that's available on iPhone and Android. And the app has great features, but I think the one that people use most is where is the next biki stop? Because it's GPS enabled. So you can see yourself and you can see the biki stops. But it also shows you what the availability of bikes and docks is. So if you're riding along and you're wondering, is there going to be a place for me to put my bike, you can see, or is there a bike there? You can see those things. And that's probably the main feature that people use the app for. That's really important. Yeah, it's really important. And I think it's one of the things that we don't want people to run in is to those situations, right? Because I thought I was saving time and then if I can't dock my bike and put it into a station, then it screws up what they're trying to do. So that's one of the reasons we have the app. And that's also the reason that we have stations close together. I'm always asked, there's a station here and I can see the next one. And that's absolutely right. And the idea then in those situations, especially in areas where we have a lot of activity, is making that so if you do come into a situation that we haven't been able to get the station set, then there's one so close by that you think, OK, that's acceptable. Oh, that's great. That's really important. It's really important. It's like, may I say, taking an Uber. You take it for short trips, go where you want, stop. You're unencumbered, then you decide to come back. So easy to do that. From wherever you are, right? And we do have a relationship with Lyft, by the way. And in that sense, we know a lot of people like to take Bikki for Palhanna. And we don't encourage people to have a few, you know, to overdo it and then use Bikki. And so that's why we suggest that people Bikki one way. And if they feel that it's not really, they're not in the capacity to bike, then to take Lyft home. So what does that mean? Is there a special price, special program with Lyft? Yeah, so they will have different offer codes that will go along with some of the things that we're supporting. So always look, if we're going to be in an event like that, that you often will see a Lyft code for that event. And then also, if you're not a Lyft user, then there's a special sign-up that rewards Bikki and you for being a Bikki user. It's all about options, right? Yeah, it really is. So it is remaking the city. So I want to also track on how it's been since June 28. You have more bikes now. What's your ridership? What's the sea change in your ridership? Right. Really interesting at the beginning. I think like with anything in Hawaii, it starts really strong. And I was worried that it was going to drop. I was really more concerned about that. What happens? Is it just going to be a new thing? I'll go right at once and go away. But actually, our ridership has stayed really steady and strong around 60,000 trips every month. And so 2,000 to 2,100. What we see when low ridership days are, guess what? When it's raining and pouring outside. People say, you know, I think I'll choose something else. We had a really, really rainy day the day after Christmas. It was one of those where it was flash flood warnings on your TV all the time. And that one, we had only 500 trips that day. And I have to admit, I go on it because I can see sort of what's going on. And it's like, oh, there's people out riding right now. And they look outside and they go, wow, these guys are dedicated. Yeah, that's great. So that's our low days. We haven't been through a full year, so we don't know what seasonality looks like yet. So we don't know. Bad weather should lower trips. Shorter days, I thought might lower trips. But we don't know if cooler weather makes more rides. So far, January is higher ridership than we've seen at all. Yeah, so it's like, why? We don't know for sure. What about the tourists? I mean, when it started, my impression, anecdotal only, was that tourists were really interested. They had no fear. They were interested in exploring. It was a great way for them to explore. How has that changed? So the visitor side has stayed pretty much the same. And what we have to remember is that most visitors have bike share where they are. Ah, sure. Right, so I think, so for them to come here, I think a lot before was what I was hearing was, there's no bike share in Honolulu. Are you kidding me? Because they want to be outside, and they are the ones that get all the convertibles from the rental car companies, right? We don't. So they want to be outside. So I think they come in actually knowing more about it than a lot of our residents do. So anyway, that's holding pretty steady. But we talk with the visitor industry, and how can we help enhance the visitor experience and all of that? So that's good. So we see them continuing to use it. I do know a lot of people think that a lot of residents are visitors because I get asked that all the time. When I'm out on the weekend or something, they'll ask me, where are you from? It's like here. So yeah, it's like, I'm wearing shorts, and yeah, I look like a visitor. So I guess then, but most of your growth would be in local people. Yeah, well you know, 65% of our rides, we just did, over the end of the year, we just released our six month statistics. And 65% of the trips made on Beaky are by residents. And the only real way that we know that is what zip code do they associate? So by zip code, that's what we see. And also we see that our highest zip code of use is Waikiki. So that's not visitors, you know, because they wouldn't be putting in, they wouldn't know it's 96815. They wouldn't have no idea. They wouldn't know. So it's the people, and I can relate to this for my son, not the Waikiki part, but the resident part of being sort of like in that area is he was working at a restaurant and then he had to close up. And so he would not be done until after 12 midnight. And so he would take Beaky home. And so I think we have a lot of service workers and a lot of people who work in the visitor industry or live in Waikiki that use Beaky. That's fabulous. We're gonna take a break, Lori. When we come back, I would like to talk about the technology you started with and the technology you are evolving to. I love the GPS idea, but there must be more. That's Lori McCartney. She's the CEO of Bikeshare, Hawaii. We'll be right back. Hey, aloha, standing energy man here on Think Tech Hawaii where community matters. This is the place to come to think about all things energy. We talk about energy for the grid, energy for vehicles, energy and transportation, energy and maritime, energy and aviation. We have all kinds of things on our show, but we always focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii, because it's my favorite thing. That's what I like to do. But we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii, things that should be a big changer for Hawaii. And we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Stand the Energy Man and take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii. Aloha. Hello, everyone. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host, Martin Desbang, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live, but other aspects of our life, not only here in Hawaii, but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. We are back. We're live. We're having such a good time with Laurie McConaughey. And she is the CEO of Bike Share, which is so wholesome and healthy and good for us, good for all of us, even if we don't ride bikes, because it's remaking our city, you know? So the first thing I wanna talk about now that we're back from the break is the GPS technology you talked about, that sounds great. What else is in the app? What else is there? Oh, and you talked about how there's a control kind of thing where you can look at a screen in a remote location and see who's out there and get demographics on them, very important for planting, what else? Yeah. Well, one of the things I think people should know is that we're watching the system all the time. Okay, so we know the status of every station. We know if there's something going on with the technology, you know that the kiosks in the stations are solar powered. And so in that sense, then the solar, yeah, the solar feeds keeps the battery charged, but we have some batteries that have to be changed more often. If you notice a beaky stop that's under trees, then it needs to be changed that more often. Solar, the nature of solar. Yeah, so we watch those and then we watch the technology because there's communication. So the technology feeds the communications. So you're running the internet, you're running wireless. Yeah, so it's running through cell. So I don't know if people remember when there was a fire underneath that viaduct that burnt out a lot of the internet connections. One of our main carriers was pretty much disabled for that whole day. All of our system went down. And so we couldn't do anything. I mean, if we couldn't communicate through the cell service, the stations that were with that particular carrier couldn't function. So our call center then was Newwich stations. We encouraged people to call the call center and then the call center will work with where are you, where are you trying to go? Well, this station works. It was a pretty interesting day, but we tried to do our best. But the technology on the back end helps us also keep track of how many trips in this area, what time of day, how many ins and outs. So we can get an idea of where demand is and where we need more, how long was that station empty or full? Yeah, adjust the whole system. So after six months, we're doing some things a little bit differently and after this first learning we'll continue to evolve to do that. It's like ABC stores. If something sells, there's more of it and if something doesn't sell, it's not on the shelf. You're always adapting. Yeah, this density of network is probably the thing that's hardest for me to explain to people about why we need so many. Because our priority is if we want to, we have to have the density to make it work. So it means we have to have enough stations for that area. And that's where conflict will come in. Our first choice is always a wide sidewalk. Then nobody, he's not bothering anybody, right? There's plenty of room to walk. Not, and then the second place is- You can't always have that. It can't always have that. But you have to have enough density to make it work. And so then the second place is restricted parking. That's where it says no parking. Well, one of the things we found out was some people park there anyway. And if you put a beaky stop there, then it disturbs those areas. Yeah, and then our third choice is parking. But what we have seen, because we have seen it used so much, is if we have in a two parking spot space, instead of two cars, and a lot of neighborhoods, you'll notice that people just sort of commandeer those spots. You park, and I'm not moving my car because I'm not getting a space again. Instead of that staying for one or two cars over a period of time, you see all of these bikes going in and out. And that means that we're improving the mobility for people. And that's what's helping. So it's an interesting conversation. So giving this, you know, the information you get and your analysis of your analytics, if I can read. So you've made changes. Have you, and I assume you've moved locations because of that. Have you increased the number of locations? Have you increased the number of bicycles? So we have only moved one station. And this is where the public, private non-profit partnership comes in. So as a non-profit that manages bike share, that manages BIKI, and is the public face and the interface with the city and everything, and manages the operator, we're not just where we make money, right? We need to serve the community. And so from that sense, out of 100 stations, there's some that don't perform as well as others. But they're serving a important community. Interesting kind of dilemma then. Yeah, so it's sort of like, so we try to balance it. I think it's like any business. There's the 80-20 rule, right? There's always the 80, 20% of the people make the money for the other 80%. And that's in any industry I've ever been in, that's been the case. So we're not 80-20, but we're, you know, we're trying to keep that balance. And I think that's healthy. So if your demographics show that you need another station, another location, or you need to buy X number of bikes in order to meet your model, however you fashion that model, where do you get the funding from? Do you have to go out to the public? Who would provide the additional capital? Yeah, so we're in a new stage now. So I was able to go find, our operator actually financed the equipment for this first phase, because many people think that this was all publicly funded. And we did get support from the city and the state, but not towards any equipment. And so then we had to find another way to do that. And Secure Bike Share actually is operating the system and has the financial risk for the operations and also financed the equipment so they have the capital risk. So it's an equipment company. It's an operating company. They're an operating company. So it's Bike Share and then there's the operating company. Yeah, yeah, Bike Share and the operating company. Exactly. Now next, just to make things more interesting. Of course. The federal government has TAP funds, Transportation Alternative Program Funds. And they deliver a certain percentage of those to states. And then the states decide where they're going to put that money. And so over the next three years, Bike Share equipment will come from federal funds. That was what we'll fund expansion. It's an 80% funding, so we are required to come up with a 20% match. And so that's where we're going out to the community. Also we'll probably go to some public sources and to be able to do that. This is for contributions that are tax deductible contributions and the like. Yes, yes. And from funding from governmental organizations that would be like grant and aid kind of contributions. Right, right, right, right. So we talk to everybody about things like that, but we're really pleased. Yeah. We're really pleased that $5 million from federal TAP funds are targeted towards more Bike Share equipment over the next three years. And so that's pretty exciting. And that would double the size of the system. You don't need legislation for that. I assume that you can deal on an administrative level for that. We did have some legal, some regulatory hoops to jump through and we jumped through lots of hoops. But you know what's interesting now is most of, I mean, all of our biggie stops are on city and county and private property. And this next phase is looking at state property also and federal property and learning about, oh wait, I thought that was city. Oh no, that's state. Anything with highway on it is state. Oh, okay. Yeah, so Nimitz Highway, Alamoana. Yeah. Learning something, I hope you're taking notes on this. In case you were always confused about what state and what city now you know. It's really interesting. Yeah, so anyway, so having conversations with various folks in the state about that because to fill in some of these areas, including UH is another entity. And so we've had discussions with them. We're really close to finalizing our ability to put stations up there in our next phase. Well we would be remiss if we did not discuss safety. And the reason I say that is, I mean, I'm raised with the notion that the more bikes you have on the road, the safer it is for any individual cyclist. And you guys are putting bikes on the road. So you're actually affecting the whole enchilada. You're having an effect on the possibility, the option of riding bike, whether it's a beaky bike or not a beaky bike, because you're there. So can we talk about safety for a moment? Absolutely. Okay, so I retired before I took this job. And then I was retired for a couple of years and I came back to do it. And I didn't do it because bike share was what I wanted to do for that being the end. My purpose was to make this a safer place to bike. So here's how I see it. And what we've seen in other cities is, like you said, more people on bikes creates more awareness among people in cars that there's gonna be bikes there. When I ride my personal bike, I'm much more comfortable riding where people expect to see bikes. Secondly, the more non-bike people, I haven't been on a bike in years, more of those people that are on a bike, when they get behind the wheel of their car, they're probably gonna drive a little bit differently. You bet. So that's another thing that just backs to the personal interaction of bikes. But then also the more people that there are on bikes, the more supportive they're gonna be of the idea of more bike lanes, more protected bike lanes, more bike paths, because if you're riding a bike, then you're gonna feel safer and you're being more willing to ride. If you're in a car, it's like, get them out of my way. Right. So I think you have the opportunity then with this. Because of the presence of the bike share bikes, of Beaky, I think it's, I've seen a lot more other rental bikes out. I've seen a lot more personal bikes out. And I think it gives people the permission to say, oh, if bike share is here, then I can probably ride my own bike. And so that gets that momentum going towards the idea of, let's put in more bike lanes, let's make the streets safer for pedestrians and bicycles, and slow traffic down and have people be more aware of each other. Yeah, yeah. So it's a snowball kind of effect. Yeah, it's like this catalyst of, bike share is like a catalyst that can just help move things along. Yeah. Not only that you're having more riders on the street, but you're affecting the public because they have a greater level of awareness about riding and about making the streets safer riding and about looking for cyclists and giving them a wider berth and not tailgating them and all that. Yeah. And that's the safety side. And the other side, I think that's harder for people to see. And I hope that we'll be able to demonstrate that better and continue to demonstrate that is congestion and parking. Yeah. We all know, I love my car when I can drive it and I can find a place to park easily and all that and I'm not sitting in traffic. I really do not like my car when I need to be somewhere and I can't find a parking place and I'm circling around or I'm sitting at lights or whatever. It's like, yeah. And we can't, we don't have tons of space to create a lot more parking. And do we really, do we want to tear down paradise and put up a parking lot? You know, go back to an old sign. Can we shift enough people for some of their trips to be made by bike so that it frees up if people need to drive that there's more available parking? That's another thing that we're trying to do is reduce that congestion. I do not make all of every single trip every day by car but I make a lot fewer, I mean by bike, but I make a lot fewer by car than I used to. Yeah. So it's sort of interesting and I'm just one example. So what's your, you know, dream? I might tell you mine. Okay, why don't you tell me yours first. Okay, my dream is it, you know, in Honolulu anyway, and to some extent the same exists on the neighbor islands, is you have mountains in the middle and you have a flat perimeter area. And, you know, the hills are not really overwhelming and you can find good terrain to ride. Problem is that the roads are not that good, you know, and they need little surfacing, and the drivers are not that aware and that the bike lanes would really help and many places are on it. My dream, okay, is that we recognize all this, we put some money into it and you reach a tipping point where a huge number of people, including elderly people, you know, who don't ride bikes, they're afraid if they fall it's gonna be terrible. You know, you find a whole community and that will change the way this place works. It'll change health, it'll change the pace of life, if you will. It'll change, you know, sort of a state of mind. You know, I look at you and I see somebody who rides a bike all the time, I think it helps you, I mean, physically, mentally, it's part of the core of your life. I wish I'd, I wanna do that too much. Yeah, we're gonna go for a ride. Okay, we can go for a ride. But, you know, I mean, I remember my own biking days, I always felt exhilarated riding a bike. It was a karma thing, it was a whole lifestyle that was good. Anyway, so my dream is that Honolulu anyway, and maybe Neighbor Island soon enough, becomes a biking city. How about your dream? I think that would be fantastic. And I think, I think about myself getting older and when I can't drive a car and, you know, when I wanna get around and I wanna stay in the neighborhood I live in, thank you very much, and not be shipped off somewhere. And so in that sense then, I think a walkable, bikeable place is the place I wanna be and I've always thought that would be an urban place. And I think of other cities that have gone in and different places I like to go. It's usually not because there's a lot of cars parked there or cars in the street. It usually has to do with these walking streets with shops and, you know, it's just enjoying outside and it feels clean and it just feels nice. And I think that getting people out of their cars sometimes and out to appreciate what we have here would help that along too. It's just, it's just amazing. And I love to ride a bike in that sense because I get to experience our neighborhoods and I don't really experience them in a car. I mean, there's a little bubble. Oh, it's true. And when you're outside, somebody was just telling me this morning, I took a group of people that I do exercise in the morning at Magic Island and we're all in our 60s and 70s. And I took them for their very, for their first beaky ride on Friday and we had a great time. We stayed off of main roads and went and had coffee in Cacaaco and came back. And then this morning, one of the women, they had a great, we all had a great time. And then this morning, one of them came up to me and said, you know, this week this, I was just at over at the library at Alamwana and I thought I could drive to So-and-So or my husband said, I'll take you. And she says, no, I'm gonna take beaky. And so she did it. She had a great experience. And she said during that time when she was on her ride, all the other beaky riders were like waving at each other. And it's like, it's just sort of nice. It starts building this connection with people. It's infectious. Yeah. So those kinds of things, there's the hard benefit, the really quantifiable benefits. And then there's the benefits that are a little bit softer. And I think that our ability to connect people together again and have them just experience other people, maybe that will help us in some of the communications that we have and make us pull us together a little bit. As a community. What a beautiful dream. I hope all of our dreams come true in this way. I do too. Thank you, Lori. Thanks for coming down. We gotta do this again. Yeah, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Aloha. Aloha.