REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
By the Office of Planning & Sustainability of the City of Northampton (the “City”), on behalf of the eight (8) ValleyBike Share bike sharing communities: Amherst, Chicopee, Easthampton, Hadley, Holyoke, Northampton, Springfield, South Hadley, West Springfield and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Respondents to this Request for Information (RFI) are invited to respond to any or all of the questions in this document. Responses to this RFI shall serve solely to assist the City in understanding the current state of the marketplace with regards to securing a vendor to manage bike share operations for the Pioneer Valley Region of Massachusetts. In particular, the City seeks to understand costs and what services such costs would cover so that we may accurately develop appropriate funding sources to support a full solicitation for a Request for Proposal (RFP) in the future. This RFI does not in any way obligate the City to issue or amend a solicitation or to include any of the RFI provisions or responses in any solicitation. Responding to this RFI is entirely voluntary, and will in no way affect the City’s consideration of any proposal submitted in response to any subsequent solicitation, nor will it serve as an advantage or disadvantage to the respondent in the course of any RFP that may be subsequently issued or amended.
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this RFI is to elicit the advice and best analysis of knowledgeable persons in the bike sharing vendor community to enable the City of Northampton, on behalf of all eight (8) municipalities and the University of Massachusetts, to clearly define a future solicitation for operational and maintenance bike share services for the ValleyBike Share bike sharing system. Responses to this RFI should include information that will be useful to the City in subsequently drafting a more detailed procurement solicitation(s) related to the ValleyBike Share program.
2. AGENCY
The City of Northampton (the “City”) currently is the lead agency on behalf of ValleyBike Share. ValleyBike Share is a regional bike share system in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts consisting of 79 stations and 750 electric assisted (e-assist) bicycles fully owned by the cities and towns that are part of the system. The participating communities include: Amherst, Chicopee, Easthampton, Hadley, Holyoke, Northampton, Springfield, South Hadley, West Springfield and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The previous vendor-operator, Bewegen Technologies, is no longer able to provide operations. Prior to halting operations, ValleyBike was poised to welcome the City of Westfield and expand stations within existing communities. Future expansions are also planned in other communities to fill in gaps.
The Office of Planning & Sustainability, acting on behalf of the City of Northampton and the other member-communities, is contemplating the release of one or more procurements for the ValleyBike Share
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products and services. This RFI specifically seeks information on products and services that will enable the City of Northampton to effectively administer and develop the ValleyBike Share program.
3. INTENT & PURPOSE OF RFI
The purpose of this RFI is to provide the City with the information needed to effectively solicit the bike sharing products and services that will be required to maintain, develop and enhance the ValleyBike Share program in the spring of 2024 and in the future. It is the intent of the City of Northampton and other member-communities of the ValleyBike Share program to procure a new vendor to restart the bike sharing system no later than spring of 2024 using our existing assets, including 750 e-assist bicycles and 75 station locations with dock/charge points. The City seeks a vendor with the capacity to expand the system to new interested communities within the Pioneer Valley region. Data regarding the 5 year old system can be found at the following website URL (
http://archive.northamptonma.gov/WebLink/Browse.aspx?id=642310&
;dbid=0&repo=CityOfNorthampton&cr=1). The City can also provide access to current membership data, upon request.
The Goals that the ValleyBike Share program has achieved through establishment of a regional bike share and that we intend to continue to meet for our system include the following:
? Use bicycles to enhance and extend the range of the transit and rail services.
? Promote healthy, active living and support recreational use of bikes.
? Build demand for bicycle infrastructure, including bike lanes and bike parking.
? Provide visitors and residents with an effective means of regional transportation that is equitable, inclusive of the elderly, low income and other underserved populations
? Promote economic development including jobs and schools
? Promote green transportation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions
? Create a bike share system that is financially sustainable
? Create a bike share system that functions regionally
? Make use of local opportunities to support bike sharing, such the prevalence of large health care institutions, the number of higher-learning campuses and large student population, and supportive local businesses.
? Create more livable communities, and reduce the need for new areas to be developed for additional parking in our urban core and commercial areas.
4. INFORMATION SOLICITED
This RFI specifically seeks information on costs, services and operational structure that vendors would employ to run a bike share system. The information is sought to inform our ValleyBike Share communities so that adequate financial capacity can be secured to procure a new vendor to fully operate the bike share program as quickly as possible.
Please provide responses to the following:
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A. What components would your company provide to operate a regional bike sharing system? Please identify and describe all suggested consulting services that would support the goals detailed in this RFI.
B. Solutions and Costs:
a. Please list the cost(s) for implementation of the product and services associated with the ValleyBike Share program with a detailed breakdown for the cost of hardware, software, services, and give contexts/ scenarios. Please be sure to list a cost estimate for each component listed, and specify the unit of cost (e.g. ‘per station’, ‘per bike’ or ‘per month).
b. In reviewing the list of component services below, would your company offer these IT solutions be a comprehensive turnkey operation with in-house IT support that included services such as the following? Or, alternatively, would your company subcontract different aspects? Please specify which of these services your company would provide directly and those that would be subcontracted.
i. Back office payments, web interface for members,
ii. mobile app and management; customer service;
iii. Monthly data reporting on participation and ridership, destinations etc.
c. Are administration and technical user training offered with these solutions?
C. Describe any third-party relationships or dependencies that would be relied upon for the solution described in response to this RFI.
D. Describe how your system would manage real time tracking and balancing capabilities.
E. Describe your approach to Customer Service. In other words, how would your company respond to questions, complaints and bike issues?
F. How would you approach marketing/public engagement/promotion of use to generate new riders? Is this part of operations or would you consider this as the regions’ responsibility or a hybrid?
G. Do you have capacity to provide website and/ or mobile app information in English and Spanish?
H. What would operational costs be? Per station or system wide?
I. What would your approach consist of to reduce the operational costs that would otherwise be borne by the municipalities?
J. How would you approach sponsorship? Is that for the community to develop or do you bring sponsors to the table? What is your experience with this?
K. What is included in your operational cost? For example: would your operation include the following: back office payments, Website/app management, Bike balancing/repair/system, bike maintenance, customer call center, bike storage during and off season?
L. Delineate the membership Structure/Ridership levels and how riders can use the system and where they pay.
M. What would be the cost to the various rider/ membership levels in the Pioneer Valley?
N. Are these costs based on offsetting operational costs or designed to both promote public use of the system, and to provide a steady income stream to help communities offset operating costs?
O. What would be your plan for hours of operations/months per year?
P. Describe how you would ensure access to unbanked or low income riders and those without access to smart phones and credit cards;
Q. How would you handle all payments, fees, penalties or other monetary transactions by users of the System and offset cost to municipalities?
R. What would be your anticipated level of service targets? In other words, what would the target percentage of bicycles available at each station be?
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S. Do you have options for integration to existing regional bus pass network?
T. How long would you anticipate it would take to restart operations?
U. What would be your plan for expansion to new communities and what would be your estimate of infrastructure costs per bike and per station for new communities?
5. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
Please note that this RFI is issued solely for the purpose of obtaining information. Nothing in this RFI shall be interpreted as a commitment on the part of the City to enter a contract with any respondent or to make any procurement.
A. This RFI has been posted on July 25, 2023
B. Respondent Questions. Potential respondents who have questions regarding this RFI may e-mail them to the contact listed in (g) below by August 9, 2023. Respondents may only make inquiries and request clarification concerning this RFI by written questions via e-mail. Responses to inquiries and clarification questions will be provided electronically to all interested parties via a posting on The City’s website (Bids).
C. There will be no informational session associated with this RFI.
6. RESPONSE SUBMISSION.
a. All response to this RFI are due no later than 4:00 p.m. on AUGUST 23, 2023.
b. Respondents should submit one (1) electronic copy via e-mail. Only electronic responses only shall be accepted.
c. All responses must include on the first page the official name (if any) of the firm or entity submitting the response. Please consecutively number all pages of the response.
d. Response Content. Vendors should include a response to each of the questions set forth in section 4 and 10 of this RFI.
e. Response Format. All responses shall be submitted with a point-by-point response to each numbered subsection set forth in Section 4 above and Section 9 below. If a respondent opts not to respond to any item(s) in that subsection, please note and if possible include an explanation for the lack of response.
f. Please direct all communications, questions, and responses to the following contact:
Carolyn Misch, AICP
Director of Office of Planning & Sustainability
City of Northampton
210 Main St
Northampton, MA 01060
cmisch@northamtponma.gov
For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address.
413-587-1287
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g. Additional Information. The City retains the right to request additional information from respondents. The City may, at its sole discretion, elect to request formal presentations from certain vendors and/or create an RFR or RFP which will include the detailed requirements and key success criteria for the procurement and be based, at least in part, on the responses received from this RFI. The City may request further explanation or clarification from any and all respondents during the review process.
h. Respondents may volunteer as much additional information as they'd like!
7. COSTS.
By submitting a response, respondents agree that any cost incurred in responding to this RFI, or in support of activities associated with this RFI, shall be the sole responsibility of respondent. The City shall not be held responsible for any costs incurred by respondents in preparing their respective responses to this RFI.
8. REVIEW RIGHTS.
Responses to this RFI may be reviewed and evaluated by any person(s) at the discretion of The City including independent consultants retained by the City now or in the future.
9. PUBLIC RECORD.
All responses to this RFI will be public record under the Commonwealth’s Public Records Law, Mass. Gen. L. ch. 66 s. 10, regardless of confidentiality notices set forth on such writings to the contrary.
10. INFORMATION REQUESTED.
1. Company Name (please list parent company as well)
2. Company Address
3. Company Website
4. Contact name and information (e-mail address required)
5. Provide a description of your company and the basis of your expertise in offering a response to this RFI.
6. Please provide responses to questions identified in Section 4 of this RFI.
