Ethics and Design in the Smart Bikeshare Domain

Contemporary or 'smart' bikeshare schemes have exploited the capacity of information and communications technologies to automate systems and deliver improved mobility and convenience for citizens in a way that is both sympathetic to the environment and cost effective for service providers. However, there is a growing consensus that smart bikeshare is a technology appropriated by elite interests and complicit in processes economic and social stratification. This is evident in uneven service distribution and in design configurations which exclude already marginalized groups. Using an ethical lens derived from critical technology studies, this paper draws on a case study from Hamilton, Canada, which demonstrates the potential of reflexive design practices to address these issues and produce new sociotechnical arrangements which understand system users as active participants in the creation of the systems they appropriate.