Bike Sharing - The Global Trend to Eco-friendly Urban Transportation

Cities around the world from Montreal's new Bixi program to Copenhagen to Berlin, Barcelona and Lyon have embraced public bike rental programs as global gas prices soar and concerns over global warming from carbon emissions deepen. This is welcome news, since you’d be hard pressed to find a greener mode of transportation - bicycles are the penultimate green transportation: they're cheap, efficient, and emission free. Paris recently initiated its epic Vélib program, supplying its streets with a veritable fleet of 20,000 bikes.

Montreal's program - the most ambitious on the North American continent- will make 3,000 bikes available at 300  wi-fi operated, solar powered stations spread out around the central area of the city.

Though the idea was spawned by the program in Paris, what makes Bixi, the Montreal version, different is that it's run by the city in co-ordination with the bus and metro system.  Bikes can be removed from one station and returned to any of the others.  Commit to a year's worth of bus/metro passes, and you get half off the $78 yearly subscription rate (you also get a discount to Communauto, Montreal's equally fab hi-tech car-co-op.)
I

n July 2007, the city of Paris debuted a new self-service "bicycle transit system" called Velib’. Parisians and visitors alike are able to pick up and drop off bicycles throughout the city at 750 locations—offering a total of 10,648 bikes. By the end of 2007, there was a Velib’ station approximately every 900 feet for a total of 1,451 locations and 20,600 bikes.

 The Washington District of Transportation has teamed up with Clear Channel for the SmartBike DC program, exchanging advertising space for funds to maintain the bikes and improve upon the system. The arrangement is a boon to congested city districts, since it generates revenue while requiring cities to spend literally “no money on designing, marketing or maintaining” the program.

For a $40 membership fee, SmartBike users are free to rent a three speed for up to three hours at a time. An electronic system monitors the bikes, assuring timely returns and keeping track of lost bikes. If all goes well, Sebastian is hoping to expand the program up to 1,000 bicycles.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

Links:

http://smartbikedc.com/

http://open.salon.com/blog/juliet_waters/2009/05/13/a_bicycle_built_for_35_million

Comments

[Grindstone]

You should check your words before using them. Penultimate means next to last.

[Cyrion]

It isn't without it's problem though:

"Vélib' -a cross between "velo" (bike) and "liberté" (freedom) - has transformed travel in the French capital since it was launched in July 2007. Its sturdy grey bikes have been used 42 million times since then.

But success has come at a high price: some 7,800 of the original 15,000 bikes (20,000 in summer) have "disappeared" – presumed stolen – and 11,600 have been vandalised. It is not uncommon to find them hanging from trees in Paris, while several were spotted in Romania last year."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/4570107/Half-of-Paris-rental-bikes-stolen.html