Just reported on Wired.com is a new program in Lyon, France that may be of interest here in Portland (photo on left). This well-designed and high tech rent-a-bike system seems to be a major improvement on the old “Yellow Bike” program. It simply requires a credit card to “check out” a bike. The fee is $1.20 per hour and the first :30 minutes are free.
So far the system is doing quite well:
In just three months, the program has signed up 15,000 subscribers who take 4,000 trips a day and travel over 24,800 miles a week on 2,000 public bikes at 150 bike stations.
Several other cities (including Amsterdam) are interested in this new system and have already sent delegations to check it out. So…which lucky city employee is going to fly to Lyon?
Thanks for reading.
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I saw similar bike rental systems when I was in Norway in May this year. In Oslo the system was two years old – and was doing well. The bikes were in similar corrals and could be checked out for three hours at a time once you got a card. A year’s rental I believe was 40 or 50 krona which Is Around $6-7 dollars. (I took a photo of the sign with details, which I will forward to you at another time) The bikes looked a little different and had advertising. I saw people riding them, renting them, and saw lots bikes ready to ride. On the otherside I saw another bike rental system in the Northern Norwegian town of Tronheim — that didn’t work. I saw probably 8-10 bike corrals, and not a single bike was left! At first I thought, well maybe all the bikes are in use, but soon I realized they’d all must have been stolen. These I think did not use a creditcard or pre arranged card system, but a coin system that returned your 20 krona coin when you brought it back. It was quite sad — This is also a town that has the first bicycle street elevator – the Sycleheis (sp?). I didn’t see it in action, but you were supposed to put your wheel in, and I think you would stay on your bike and it would take you up a hill. It was expensive to use, and I saw no one using it. Besides all the failed attempts at bicycle inventiveness, the town was brimming with happy cyclists — of course I was there on a nice sunny day!
Carye
ps. I’ll send you photos, right now my computer is having difficulity reading CD-roms. Argh.
Munich has a similar system. Die Bahn (the national train system) has spread thousands of bikes throughout Munich. All users have to do is sign up with them. Once they are given an account, they just call a phone number using their cell phone and type in the bicycle ID that is printed on the bike that they want to “check-out.” The lock is then automatically unlocked for the caller. The user then rides the bike until their destination and once the lock is closed, the billing stops. I am not sure of the cost for each minute. As far as I could tell, there were plenty of bikes for people, and I saw many people using them.
I could certainly provide some pictures of the bikes if anyone is interested.
Munich has a similar system. Die Bahn (the national train system) has spread thousands of bikes throughout Munich. All users have to do is sign up with them. Once they are given an account, they just call a phone number using their cell phone and type in the bicycle ID that is printed on the bike that they want to “check-out.” The lock is then automatically unlocked for the caller. The user then rides the bike until their destination and once the lock is closed, the billing stops. I am not sure of the cost for each minute. As far as I could tell, there were plenty of bikes for people, and I saw many people using them.
I could certainly provide some pictures of the bikes if anyone is interested.
I saw similar bike rental systems when I was in Norway in May this year. In Oslo the system was two years old – and was doing well. The bikes were in similar corrals and could be checked out for three hours at a time once you got a card. A year’s rental I believe was 40 or 50 krona which Is Around $6-7 dollars. (I took a photo of the sign with details, which I will forward to you at another time) The bikes looked a little different and had advertising. I saw people riding them, renting them, and saw lots bikes ready to ride. On the otherside I saw another bike rental system in the Northern Norwegian town of Tronheim — that didn’t work. I saw probably 8-10 bike corrals, and not a single bike was left! At first I thought, well maybe all the bikes are in use, but soon I realized they’d all must have been stolen. These I think did not use a creditcard or pre arranged card system, but a coin system that returned your 20 krona coin when you brought it back. It was quite sad — This is also a town that has the first bicycle street elevator – the Sycleheis (sp?). I didn’t see it in action, but you were supposed to put your wheel in, and I think you would stay on your bike and it would take you up a hill. It was expensive to use, and I saw no one using it. Besides all the failed attempts at bicycle inventiveness, the town was brimming with happy cyclists — of course I was there on a nice sunny day!
Carye
ps. I’ll send you photos, right now my computer is having difficulity reading CD-roms. Argh.
this and the following 2 pics are of the german railway bikes, as seen in frankfurt: http://todd.cleverchimp.com/bike/euro/eurobike-Pages/Image13.html
i can see toting a french bicycle socialist, er, sharing scheme becoming politically troublesome, at least if any federal funds are involved, as the nation sinks into reactionary denial about the end of cheap energy over the next several years.
Munich has a similar system. Die Bahn (the national train system) has spread thousands of bikes throughout Munich. All users have to do is sign up with them. Once they are given an account, they just call a phone number using their cell phone and type in the bicycle ID that is printed on the bike that they want to “check-out.” The lock is then automatically unlocked for the caller. The user then rides the bike until their destination and once the lock is closed, the billing stops. I am not sure of the cost for each minute. As far as I could tell, there were plenty of bikes for people, and I saw many people using them.
I could certainly provide some pictures of the bikes if anyone is interested.
this and the following 2 pics are of the german railway bikes, as seen in frankfurt: http://todd.cleverchimp.com/bike/euro/eurobike-Pages/Image13.html
i can see toting a french bicycle socialist, er, sharing scheme becoming politically troublesome, at least if any federal funds are involved, as the nation sinks into reactionary denial about the end of cheap energy over the next several years.