By student journalist Chow Hong Wei
It is 1.30pm and the traffic is at a standstill along Light Street.
The traffic is caused by school buses and cars parked along the roads, waiting for Convent Light Street and Saint Xavier’s schools to dismiss their students for the day.
As the drivers’ patience wear thin, a turquoise blue two-wheeler appears out of nowhere and zips quickly down the bike lane.
The cyclist is John, a freelancer who has just finished work at The Daily Dose and is cycling Penang’s new bike, the LinkBike, to get to his car which is parked in front of the City Hall.
LinkBike is a newly introduced bicycle sharing system (BSS) which was introduced last December to aid in urban mobility in Penang, working as a short distance transit vehicle that replaces the use of motor vehicles while reducing environmental pollution and traffic congestion.
With LinkBike, the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) hopes to reignite the passion for cycling among Penangites as commuters can park their cars near one of the 22 docking stations, grab a bike and ride it to their destinations.
Although this is only the fourth time John has used LinkBike, he enjoys the freedom it gives him to park his car in a less busy area, the convenience of hopping on a bike and exploring the alleys of George Town, in search for a trendy café where he can sit down, boot up his laptop and carry out his design work.
“The bike sharing system is very practical and it offers a new way for me to get to work.
“Apart from saving time to search for parking space in George Town, cycling also promotes a more sustainable way of living and a healthier lifestyle,” John said.
Similar to big cities such as Melbourne, Amsterdam, Tokyo and London, LinkBike aims to provide convenience for commuters to travel short distances via the bike.
In Penang, the initiative has received RM1.85 million in funding from MBPP and is operated by private company Fast Rent Bike.
Bike for sightseeing
While the main aim of LinkBike is to help with revolutionising urban mobility, more people are seeing it as a transport for sightseeing in the heritage area rather than to get to work.
Director of Fast Rent Bike Ken Yeoh said that the team had organised and taken part in a few events related to cycling since the introduction of LinkBike so that more people are aware of the concept of bike-sharing.
“Some people mentioned that the weather in Penang is too hot for them to cycle to work and some areas are dangerous for cycling.
“We are working closely with the local government to promote and educate Penangites about the benefits of bike-sharing and at the same time, brainstorm ideas to upgrade our facilities so that more people will use LinkBike,” Yeoh said.
Improvements needed
It is undeniable that the concept is imaginable and ambitious, yet there is still a lot of areas for the relevant authorities to improve and look into into to ensure that the facilities eventually benefit the users.
Student Tan, who went on LinkBike to commute around the heritage area said the tedious payment method puts off bike users.
“As a student, we do not own credit cards, so to use the facility is quite troublesome as the system’s payment method is limited to credit card holders only,” Tan said.
Another concern is the lengthy process of renting a bike as people complain that they need to first download the app on their phones before they can make the payment at the self-kiosk and finally scan the QR code to use the bike.
Adding to some of the problems he had encountered, freelance designer John said that the LinkBike app is sometimes unreliable.
“I have experienced problems with the app’s real time information when looking to rent a bike.
“Once, the LinkBike app showed that there were three bikes available at the docking station at Beach Street, but none was found at the station when I got there,” he said.
Although there are still numerous loopholes, Fast Rent Bike continues to take feedback from users and is looking into ways to improve their services.
Introducing LinkBike card for payments
Yeoh said that following the public’s feedback, Fast Rent Bike has recently launched an alternative payment method called LinkBike card.
According to him, the LinkBike card works like a Touch-N-Go card, requiring users to reload a certain amount of credit on the card and use it whenever they wish to rent the bike.
Everyone can register for the LinkBike card at the LinkBike office or The Light Café which are both located at Penang Esplanade Road.
The LinkBike card fee is RM150, which includes RM100 as a refundable deposit, RM20 for the credit and RM30 for a one-year membership fee.
Yeoh has now expanded his IT team to improve on the app and to further develop the system as they foresee plans to increase the number of stations and bikes on the island.
Currently, there are 250 bicycles spread over 22 stations and the bike sharing system has achieved 8,583 ridership to date.
To continue growing the number of riders, Yeoh is looking to introduce a point system which will enable riders to collect points and redeem goods such as vouchers or meal treats at cafes.
Yeoh added that LinkBike will conduct surveys and polls to ask cyclists which areas need to be upgraded to ensure that the safety of cyclists is guaranteed.
“We will propose to the local government the areas that require bicycle lanes and consider those that need to be repaired,” he said.
Future plans
With the Penang Transport Masterplan, LinkBike has a long term goal where in the future, one can hop on and off the LRT and grab a bike to reach their destination.
“Let’s cycle, share and go green for a better Penang,” Yeoh said.
Chow Hong Wei is a student journalist and is pursuing his 3+0 Bachelor of Communication from University of Southern Queensland Australia at Han Chiang College.
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