EQUIPMENT AUDIT-2022-ValleyBike2022 Bewegen Pioneer Valley Audit Report
Tom Annese, Northampton Planning & Sustainability
On March 23 and 24, 2022, Tom Annese performed a ValleyBike bicycle
audit of the roughly 750 bikes purchased in phases 1, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3
from April 2018-2021. Yanik Hardy, Customer Relations Manager at
Bewegen, helped orient me at the Bewegen warehouse in Florence and
helped me locate bicycle stations throughout the Pioneer Valley and
answered any questions I had about the Bewegen system and/or when
there were missing or extra bicycles at stations.
Bewegen Warehouse
At the Bewegen headquarters, there were roughly 300 bicycles in the
warehouse. The Bewegen team organizes them into four groups: A, B, C,
and Ready. The A group can generally be repaired in less than an hour.
These repairs are done outside in the field when possible. The B group are
bikes that require more extensive repairs–generally 1-4 hours. The C
group requires a day-long complete overhaul that can take up to eight
hours. Eight of the C bikes were vandalized or damaged to such an extent
that they were stripped for usable parts to repair other bikes. These bikes
are listed in the Bewegen’s bicycle spreadsheet. I counted roughly 85 C
bikes and took a 20% sample and noted that they were all on the Bewegen
spreadsheet. I took smaller samples of the other bikes and noted that they
were all on the Bewegen spreadsheet.
It’s important to note that on April 1st, Bewegen switches from winter to
summer season. Many of the bicycles at the station will soon be moved to
stations outside for community use.
Station Bike Audit
I audited 32 of the 59 winter stations in the Pioneer Valley, selected by me
at random. There are 65 total stations in summer. The cities chosen were
Springfield, Holyoke, Amherst, and Northampton. The initial station in each
city or town was chosen at random. Other stations were chosen at random
as well but with some attention given to the most efficient route throughout
each City.
In total I audited 240 bicycles at 32 different stations. In the table below, the
number in parenthesis is the total number of bicycles audited per city.
Below the city are the stations visited.
Bike Stations Audited + Total Bikes Audited Per City
Springfield (52)Holyoke (38)Amherst (83)Northampton
(67)
Basketball HofF El Corazon University Drive NHS
Baystate Health South Holyoke Umass Southwest King St.
(Starbucks)
Kenefick Park Springdale Park Haigis Mall North King St
(Big Y)
Springfield Police Ely Court Knowlton YMCA
Mercy Medical Depot Square Umass ILC Cooley Dick
Livewell Peasant Park Sylvan Smith College
Court Square Baystate Health North Pleasant St.Forbes
Downtown Kendrick Park Village Hill
Pulaski Park
During the audit, I wrote down the bicycle numbers of each bicycle. Each
bicycle has two identical number stickers, one on the interior neck of the frame
and one below the seat post. Occasionally a sticker was missing from the neck
but it was easy to simply look under the seat for the other sticker. After I wrote
down all the bike numbers, I would return to confer with Bewegen internal
website. Roughly half of the time we did this in reverse order–I would write the
bicycle numbers directly from Yanik’s computer and then check to confirm that all
the bikes Bewegen claimed were at the station.
On five occasions, I noted discrepancies between the Bewegen’s data and
auditing in the field. Either a bicycle that was supposed to be at a station was not
there or there was an extra bicycle at the station that was not listed on
Bewegen’s software.
For example, at the El Corazon station in Holyoke, bicycle #1006 was on the
internal website as being at that station. It was not. On the website, Yanik
clicked on the bike, and it then showed that the bike was at the Peasant’s Park
station. We later confirmed that the bike was indeed at Peasant’s Park station.
Also at El Corazon, I found a bicycle that was not listed on the website as at the
station. It was “an extra” bicycle that was not supposed to be there. After further
investigation, Yanik discovered that the bike had a completely dead battery and
was not connected to the network. He relayed that information to warehouse
staff so they could pick up the bike when they were next in Holyoke.
In another instance, at the Umass ILC station, I located one bike in a dock
(#01089) that was not listed on Bewegen’s internal software as being at the ILC
station. The software said the bike was at the warehouse but it was at the ILC
station.
At the North Pleasant St Station in Amherst, bicycle #3481 was an “extra bicycle”
that was not listed for that station. The website said the bike was at Kendrick
Park but it was at the North Pleasant St. Station.
Of the five discrepancies, none produced a missing bicycle. They were due to
lag time in the Bewegen website or to mechanical issues with the bicycle itself.
Conclusion
During the audit, I found approximately 300 bicycles at the Bewegen warehouse,
and hand counted 240 individual bicycles in Springfield, Holyoke, Amherst, and
Northampton. While I did find few discrepancies, most if not all of these could be
attributed to quirks or lags in the Bewegen software or battery issues with an
individual bicycle. I found no evidence of missing bicycles. I did see evidence
that heavily damaged bicycles were being used to repair other damaged
bicycles.