ZYP

Zyp bicycle

ZYP was a bike share program that operated in Birmingham from October 2015 to December 2019. The program was created REV Birmingham in partnership with the City of Birmingham, the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. Program sponsors included Regions Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and the Alabama Power Foundation. REV's Lindsey West was the program manager. The name and logo were developed by Big Communications.

Zyp was launched in October 2015 with the first of an anticipated 400 bright-green bicycles. which were distributed to 25 stations. 100 of the bicycles were enhanced with electrically-assisted pedaling. Birmingham's was the first bike share program in the United States to offer electrically-assisted bicycles. The bicycles' charging kiosks were designed by Michael Dallaire and provided, along with GPS-enabled management software, by Bewegen of Quebec, Ontario. The bicycles themselves were manufactured by Procycle.

During its first year, the program expanded from 25 to 40 stations. As of April 4, 2016 the system had 5,812 members and had provided 20,768 trips for a total distance of 27,379 miles. At that time there were 359 bikes in service and 31 kiosks in operation, most of which were equipped to accept payment for memberships.

By the end of its first year the ZYP program had enrolled 826 annual or quarterly members and sold 11,687 daily or weekly passes. Riders had logged a total of more than 81,000 miles ridden in 63,051 individual rides. In October 2019 the program reported 472 "active members" and 5,155 "occasional members" with 32,464 miles traveled for the year and 249,540 cumulative miles traveled using the ZYP bikes. In December 2019 ZYP reported having served more than 43,000 users who logged 218,000 rides, for more than 252,000 miles traveled. At the program's end, approximately 275 bicycles remained in service.

Funding for the ZYP program expired at the end of 2019. The Birmingham City Council's Transportation Committee negotiated with another micro-transit vendor to furnish electric bicycles, scooters, and/or mopeds for public use beginning in March 2020.

A $1.35 million allocation for a wayfinding program to support the ZYP system was never spent.

Stations

ZYP Station No. 40 in September 2019

• Station No. 1: Alabama Power building, 18th Street at 6th Avenue North
• Station No. 2: Publix supermarket, 20 Midtown, 20th Street at 3rd Avenue South
• Station No. 3: Uptown, BJCC, 2230 Richard Arrington Jr Boulevard North
• Station No. 4:
• Station No. 5: Birmingham City Hall, Linn Park, Short 20th Street
• Station No. 6: Birmingham Public Library, 2100 Park Place
• Station No. 7: Marconi Park, 630 25th Street North
• Station No. 8: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park, 520 16th Street North
• Station No. 9: Regions Center, 1900 5th Avenue North
• Station No. 10: Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 3, 4th Avenue North at Richard Arrington Jr Boulevard North
• Station No. 11: McWane Science Center, 216 19th Street North
• Station No. 12: Phoenix Lofts, 17th Street and 2nd Avenue North
• Station No. 13: Fix-Play Lofts, 2300 1st Avenue North
• Station No. 14: Innovation Depot, 1500 1st Avenue North
• Station No. 15: 20th Street at 2nd Avenue North
• Station No. 16: Regions Center, 20th Street at 5th Avenue North
• Station No. 17: Birmingham Intermodal Station, 1600 Morris Avenue
• Station No. 18: Railroad Park west gate, Regions Field, 14th Street at 1st Avenue South
• Station No. 19: Railroad Park east gate, 18th Street at 1st Avenue South
• Station No. 20: Advenir at Station 121, 118 Richard Arrington Jr Boulevard South
• Station No. 21: Children's Hospital, 17th Street at 5th Avenue South
• Station No. 22: Dread River Distilling Co., 2330 7th Avenue South
• Station No. 23: Kirklin Clinic, 2000 6th Avenue South
• Station No. 24: UAB Boshell Diabetes Building, 18th Street and 7th Avenue South
• Station No. 25: Jefferson County Department of Health, 1400 6th Avenue South
• Station No. 26: UAB Campus Green south side, 1523 9th Avenue South
• Station No. 27: UAB McCallum Basic Health Sciences Building, 20th Street South at University Boulevard
• Station No. 28: Memorial Park Recreation Center, 524 6th Avenue South
• Station No. 29: Smithfield Library, 1 8th Avenue West
• Station No. 30: Chick Fil-A, 5 Points South, opened April 1, 2016
• Station No. 31: Phelan Park, 14th Street South and 14th Avenue South
• Station No. 32: Hill Student Center, UAB, 1500 University Boulevard
• Station No. 33:
• Station No. 34: Martin Biscuit building, Pepper Place, 29th Street South at 3rd Avenue South
• Station No. 35: 41st Street South at 3rd Avenue South, Avondale
• Station No. 36: BBVA Compass' Harry B. Brock Administrative Center, 32nd Street and 7th Avenue South
• Station No. 37: Moe's Original Bar-B-Q, Lakeview, 729 29th Street South
• Station No. 38: Forest Park, 3912 Clairmont Avenue
• Station No. 39: Caldwell Park, 1200 26th Street South
• Station No. 40: Rojo, Rushton Park, 2927 Highland Avenue
• Station No. 41: 18th Street North at 4th Avenue North
• Station No. 42: Sloss Docks, 3201 1st Avenue North

References

• Davis, Bryan (July 20, 2015) "'Zyp' to be official brand of REV's BikeShare program." Birmingham Business Journal
• Stein, Kelsey (April 1, 2016) "3 new bikeshare locations make it even easier to Zyp around Birmingham." The Birmingham News
• Edgemon, Erin (October 10, 2016) "81,000 miles ridden during Zyp bikeshare's first year in Birmingham." The Birmingham News
• "Zyp bikes leaving Birmingham." (September 24, 2019) WBRC.com
• Beahm, Anna (October 3, 2019) "Zyp bikes to be replaced with electric scooters, pedal-assist bikes." The Birmingham News
• Thornton, William (December 23, 2019) "Last day for Zyp bikeshare in Birmingham is Dec. 31." The Birmingham News

External links

• Zyp website