Oct 22, 2007
France's programs of municipal bike rentals is spreading through the continent, and deserves attention from our own city officials
Though no U.S. mayor has yet suggested the same for downtown areas in America, the system of short-term municipal bike rentals launched in Paris several months ago, has now spread to multiple cities in Europe. In Seville, Spain, two weeks ago, I came upon a cluster of bike stations into which you inserted a credit card and thereupon obtained a bike to use for one or more hours. When you are finished with the bike, you take it to another cluster of bike stations, lock it to a modern-day hitching post, and your credit card is wiped clean of a $200 deposit needed to insure return of the bike. Obviously, multiple cities in Europe have now followed Paris' lead.
It's a fascinating new departure in municipal transportation, and last week Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City inspected one such cluster of bikes-for-hire in Paris, indicating that New York officials were looking into the possibility -- still fairly remote -- of emulating them in Gotham. Much more is required than simply installing metal stands for each such bike; clearly, a city needs traffic lanes reserved for bikers, of the sort that I saw in Seville.
But if your city would benefit from a similar system, enabling people easily and conveniently to make their way about the central area, you really should suggest that municipal officials contact Paris' city hall for information about the outcome of this interesting experiment.
Incidentally, the Paris system is now available to tourists visiting the city, as a result of a recent agreement honoring standard American Express credit cards as valid to use for such rentals. Prior to that agreement, only a credit card containing a chip in widespread use in Europe, not America, would work on the system, but this limitation has now been overcome. As of now, tourists to Paris are making a good use of the bike rental facility.
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It's a fascinating new departure in municipal transportation, and last week Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City inspected one such cluster of bikes-for-hire in Paris, indicating that New York officials were looking into the possibility -- still fairly remote -- of emulating them in Gotham. Much more is required than simply installing metal stands for each such bike; clearly, a city needs traffic lanes reserved for bikers, of the sort that I saw in Seville.
But if your city would benefit from a similar system, enabling people easily and conveniently to make their way about the central area, you really should suggest that municipal officials contact Paris' city hall for information about the outcome of this interesting experiment.
Incidentally, the Paris system is now available to tourists visiting the city, as a result of a recent agreement honoring standard American Express credit cards as valid to use for such rentals. Prior to that agreement, only a credit card containing a chip in widespread use in Europe, not America, would work on the system, but this limitation has now been overcome. As of now, tourists to Paris are making a good use of the bike rental facility.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: active, cycling, paris
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