Baltimore Bike Share
How might the Baltimore Bike Share promote equity, inclusiveness, and accessibility by engaging users across all demographics?
Center for Social Design at Maryland Institute College of Art(MICA)
Client: Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
Skills: Design Research, Observation, Interview, Journey Mapping
November 2016
Summary
Baltimore Bike Share was just launched in October 2016. Bikeshare was designed to increase equity in the public transportation system. In the second phase, MTA was planning to expand the service by adding new 25 bike station. We were asked to do a design research to understand who, how, and when Baltimoreans were or were not accessing this new service.
We engaged observational research, conducted interviews with those who use or not use this service, run surveys and spent two weeks riding the bikes ourselves. After synthesizing, the findings were presented to MTA to refine and prototype before expansion in Spring 2017.
Process
- Developing the hunt statements: This helps to clarify our research objective; “Discover how users across different demographics interact with the Baltimore Bike Share, highlighting ways the system can promote equity, inclusiveness, and accessibility”
- Riding with Bike Share: We used the bikes for two weeks while documenting the experience by taking notes, pictures, and videos.
- Observations and interviews: We spent time at bike kiosks to observe bike users interactions, interviewed them as well as those who just pass to better understand their habits and opinions.
- Synthesize the research: We have collected all the data, clustered into themes, identified common patterns.
- Presenting the outcomes: We used different tools to tell the story of the Bike Share user experience including:
- User Demographics = Infographics (who)
- User motivation =and personas (why)
- User Journey = Journey Map (how)
- Bike Share System = Hardware and software: kiosks, app, and bikes (what)
- Suggesting quick interventions: That could be implemented to optimize the Bike Share service before expansion in Spring 2017.
“The MICA Center for Social Design research project was a tremendous asset for Baltimore Bike Share. Having concluded shortly after system launch, the report captured the public’s initial reaction to the equipment and identified gaps in the system design that were deterring early adopters. The project now functions as a snapshot of initial challenges and has inspired several design changes to improve the customer experience.”
Jay Decker, Bike Share Coordinator