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Dropbike, a bike-rental application that can be downloaded on the phone, is erupting as one of the more popular ways to travel around town without hassle.
Dropbike allows users to find a bike on their phone, receive a code to unlock it, rent it for $1/hr and return it to any ‘haven’ — bike posts and bike racks marked in the app. However, since the app is newly introduced, the bikes have to be returned to campus grounds due to its ongoing project status.
The startup projected kicked off its introduction on June 15th. 68 brand new orange bikes arrived on campus for students, faculty members, and administrators to use. Dropbike allows users to find a bike on their phone, receive a code to unlock it and rent it for $1 per hour. The bike can be returned to any “haven” — bike posts and bike racks marked in the app.
The pilot project is solely tested on school grounds but the CEO does have plans to expand the project as demand and opportunity arise.
Qiming Weng, the founder and CEO of Dropbike, said he was inspired by similar bike-sharing initiatives he saw while traveling in Asia.
“In China, I noticed these colourful bicycles that everyone was riding, you could use your smartphone to unlock them and take them almost anywhere,” he said. The idea to bring the system to Canada was born soon after that.
The app produced acclaim from the University of Toronto. Jasmine Denike, Dropbike’s campus manager at the University of Toronto, said the response to the pilot has been overwhelmingly positive.
Alyy Patel, a fourth-year sociology and sexual diversity double major at the university, tried out one of the bikes and had a blast.
“I haven’t biked since I was 7 years old and I didn’t think I could,” she said.
Bill Magee, a sociology professor at the university, claims that the bike-sharing project has some benefits in terms of convenience. He thinks that having the system on campus will help students and professors because it will allow them to cross the campus faster.
“If I have to pay 50 cents to get from one side of campus to another, I’d do that,” said Magee.
Although this app is only rooted in the University of Toronto, with time and patience, the app can be found all over Canada and maybe in other regions of the world. Not only does the app create convenience for travelers, but also it promotes a healthy and cheaper way for one to live life, commuting or visiting a place to another.
