ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some of the different types of bike share systems and technologies on the market, and discusses the key trends that are likely to impact on bike share in the future. Technology was crucial to overcoming the challenge of misuse that led to the demise of the first-generation bike share program. The third-generation bike share systems were really the breakthrough technology that spurred much of bike share’s growth between 2005 and 2013. Unlike radio frequency identification technology, GPS enables operators to be able to track the route bicycles travel. The introduction of GPS-integrated bike share fleets provides a platform for a number of wayfinding technologies that seek to make bike share safer and more convenient. Affordable GPS, combined with the ubiquity of the smartphone has made it possible to operate these systems without the need for any fixed points to lock the bicycle.
