Mobi bike share records over one million rides in a year for the first time

Mobi bike share station (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Vancouver’s Mobi bike share system achieved a major milestone of reaching and exceeding one million rides in a calendar year for the very first time in its history.

Over the course of 2023, Mobi bike share recorded a total of 1.2 million rides — up from 977,000 in 2022, representing a year-over-year increase of 23%. As well, the number of unique riders on the system in 2023 reached 107,538.

In terms of total distance cycled, this grew by 38% from 2.72 million km in 2023 to 3.77 million km in 2023.

As of the end of 2023, Mobi bike share’s all-time statistics since launching in Summer 2026 are now 5.62 million rides, 363,000 unique riders, and 16.9 million km cycled.

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A key change that propelled Mobi’s growth was the full year in 2023 of expanding into offering e-bikes as an option, which were gradually introduced starting in August 2022 — in addition to maintaining the regular bike fleet. This expansion between August and October 2022 entailed 50 additional bike share stations, including 30 e-bike share stations, and the fleet’s first 500 e-bikes.

Mobi bike share’s 2023 expansion into UBC and the location of additional e-bike share stations installed during the year. (Vancouver Bike Share)

Map of Mobi bike share stations and bike/e-bike device availability, as of March 20, 2024. (Vancouver Bike Share)

By the end of 2023, Mobi had 2,000 regular bikes, 600 e-bikes, 248 stations, and 4,665 docks. This includes the installation of three e-bike share stations with over 100 e-bikes at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in December 2023, representing Mobi’s first geographical expansion outside of the City of Vancouver’s borders. Mobi has further UBC campus expansion plans to install an additional seven stations and grow the docking capacity to over 200 e-bikes by Summer 2024.

In addition to the UBC expansion, Mobi also saw its geographical service area expand southwards within Vancouver, with areas previously seeing a southernmost extent at 16th Avenue in 2022 now reaching 20th Avenue as of 2023.

In contrast, at the end of 2022, Mobi had a fleet of 2,000 regular bikes, 500 e-bikes, 250 stations, and 5,100 docks.

A significant proportion of these Mobi bike share stations are also equipped with free public WiFi connectivity under the City of Vancouver’s #VanWiFi system.

The most popular stations in 2023 for annual bike share members were Science World, the corner of 1st Avenue and Manitoba Street, Ontario Street at the seawall, the corner of Richards Street and Davie Street, and the corner of 10th Avenue and Cambie Street.

mobi bike share station vancouver rogers

Mobi bike share station (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

A high proportion of Mobi riders appear to use the bike share service for the “last mile” of their multi-modal trip, with 62% also using SkyTrain and 54% using buses as part of a trip that includes using Mobi for at least a segment of the journey in 2023. This is up from 56% and 48%, respectively, in 2022.

Mobi had nearly 68,000 members at the end of 2023. Amongst its membership, 28% used the service for commuting, 24% for pleasure/leisure and exercise, 14% for groceries/errands, and 14% for other shopping. It is estimated the spending aided by such bike share trips contributed over $16 million to the local economy in 2023, up from over $12 million in 2022.

Since they started using Mobi, 11% of members indicate they no longer drive, 45% say they drive less, 18% say there is no change in how they get around, and 23% say they never drove. It is estimated Mobi replaces one in five trips that would have otherwise been taken by car.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Mobi’s membership is between the ages of 25 and 44, and the members are far more likely to be within the higher income ranges, including 21% making salaries between $75,000 and $99,000, 18% making between $100,000 and $149,000, 8% making between $150,000 and $199,999, and 17% making $200,000 and over.

Mobi members who report a lower income entail 10% who make $50,000 to $74,999, 6% who make $35,000 to $49,999, 3% who make $20,000 to $34,000, and 1% who make under $20,000.

As well, when it comes to ethnicity, 66% of Mobi members are White (of European descent), followed by 15% East Asian, 4% each for Middle Eastern and South Asian, and 3% each for Southeast Asian and Latino. Slightly more males (48%) are members than females (44%).

Moby by Rogers (Vancouver Bike Share)

vancouver bike share mobi by rogers shaw rebranding f

Rebranding of “Mobi by Shaw” into “Mobi by Rogers” in Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Mobi is not only experiencing increased ridership from its customers, but its crews have also grown its internal use of cycling for its operations. The proportion of bike share devices moved/redeployed by cargo electric tricycles has grown from 10% in 2022 to 14.5% in 2023, as opposed to movements by vans.

Last year, Mobi also made the major change of rebranding itself to “Mobi by Rogers” with red branding, abandoning its previous “Mobi by Shaw” name with blue branding. This follows the change of ownership of the service’s title sponsor.

This year could also potentially see some of the biggest changes yet to Vancouver’s shared micro-mobility service landscape since Mobi launched eight years ago, as the municipal government is currently in the process of seeking an e-scooter share operator.

The e-scooter operator is expected to be confirmed this spring or summer for a launch of the service possibly later in 2024.

The City is requiring the future e-scooter share operator to launch an e-scooter share with docking stations, similar to Mobi. This is a measure to help address the issues of safety, clutter, and tripping hazards of dockless e-scooter share services.

It remains to be seen how the introduction of e-bike share — which will gradually expand its fleet and service area — could compete and/or complement with bike share trips.

In June 2023, the City of Coquitlam provided Lime and Neuron with the green light to launch e-scooter and e-bike share services within the city centre area. Both companies can separately operate a combined total of up to 580 devices, including 130 e-bikes and 450 e-scooters, under their dockless systems. Over the first six months of their operations, Lime and Neuron recorded a combined total of 55,000 trips, with 94% of these trips being on e-scooter devices.

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