The panel on the front was introduced in 2010 for the London scheme’s advertising and in 2011 rolled out to the Bixi systems in Canada. The older Bixis have the front light underneath the basket/rack, which unfortunately means that placing anything in the rack blocks much of the light. The new light array seems brighter, and is out of the way.
The Montreal Gazette also says that the brake system was upgraded this year. I noticed that the grips feel a bit better textured, although maybe that’s because they’re new.
I haven’t heard anything lately about getting legislation to allow advertising on the District-owned stations and bikes; until that happens, advertising won’t happen on CaBi. When that happens, you can look forward to ads on the baskets, the rear wheel skirt guard, the docks’ sides, on the map panels, and maybe on the receipts. The station bases also seem like a reasonable place.
Generally, outdoor advertising is a nice ancillary source of revenue but not going to underwrite the whole thing; posters on Bixi Montreal map panels rented for $1375 per six-month season in 2010 — less than comparable bus shelter posters since they’re not lit at night. At that rate, our 12-month/100 station system would only raise $275K annually, enough to maintain 100-200 bikes (operating costs reference). Title sponsorships in London and Minneapolis have sold for much more (millions of dollars) but then again there’s only one to sell. It would be interesting to see what kind of ads or sponsors they end up with: WMATA’s ads indicate that short-term political advocacy ads are quite valuable here, and CaBi has superb user demographics and downtown street visibility. Unlike bus shelters, almost by definition bikeshare stations are only in “happening” locations.
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