A Stationless Bikeshare Proof of Concept for College Campuses
A Stationless Bikeshare Proof of Concept for College Campuses
Files
Publication or External Link
Date
2016-05
Authors
Boegner, Luke
Cho, Yong
Fleming, Nicholas
Gilman, Tyler
Huang, Teng Kuan
King, Kyle
Kruder, Nathaniel
Lafond, Joshua
McLaughlin, Timothy
Noh, Sye Hoon
Advisor
Newcomb, Robert
Citation
DRUM DOI
Abstract
Bikeshares promote healthy lifestyles and sustainability among commuters, casual
riders, and tourists. However, the central pillar of modern systems, the bike station,
cannot be easily integrated into a compact college campus. Fixed stations lack the
flexibility to meet the needs of college students who make quick, short-distance trips.
Additionally, the necessary cost of implementing and maintaining each station prohibits
increasing the number of stations for user convenience. Therefore, the team developed a
stationless bikeshare based on a smartlock permanently attached to bicycles in the
system. The smartlock system design incorporates several innovative approaches to
provide usability, security, and reliability that overcome the limitations of a station
centered design. A focus group discussion allowed the team to receive feedback on the
early lock, system, and website designs, identify improvements and craft a pleasant user
experience. The team designed a unique, two-step lock system that is intuitive to operate
while mitigating user error. To ensure security, user access is limited through near field
ii
communications (NFC) technology connected to a mechatronic release system. The said
system relied on a NFC module and a servo working through an Arduino microcontroller
coded in the Arduino IDE. To track rentals and maintain the system, each bike is fitted
with an XBee module to communicate with a scalable ZigBee mesh network. The
network allows for bidirectional, real-time communication with a Meteor.js web
application, which enables user and administrator functions through an intuitive user
interface available on mobile and desktop. The development of an independent
smartlock to replace bike stations is essential to meet the needs of the modern college
student. With the goal of creating a bikeshare that better serves college students, Team
BIKES has laid the framework for a system that is affordable, easily adaptable, and
implementable on any university expressing an interest in bringing a bikeshare to its
campus.