by Jonathan Hiskes
Courtesy B-cycleDenver today launches
the nation’s largest bike-sharing program, distributing 500 bicycles at 50
stations around the city for citizens to use wherever they find them. The
B-cycle program mirrors bike-sharing networks in Paris and Montreal, and it’ll be
followed soon by networks in Boston and Minneapolis.
Oh, and Mexico City too, which is launching a 1,114-bike
program.
The hope is that people
can leave their car at home, take light rail or a bus into the city, and use
the bikes to zip around.
Participants can sign up at
denver.bcycle.com, where they pay
membership and usage fees. A 24-hour membership is $5; seven-day is $20; 30-day
is $30; and an annual membership costs $65, with discounts for students and
seniors. Rides shorter than 30 minutes are free, and usage fees begin at $1.10
and run up to $65 for a full day (which seems a little stiff), according to The Denver Post.
A nifty feature: The network has a GPS tracking system that lets users see where and how far they
biked and also locate nearby bikes.
The
project doesn’t use local tax dollars—it’ll run off user fees and a $210,000
federal stimulus grant.
My biggest regret about
reporting in Copenhagen last December was failing to find time to use the city’s
famed bike-sharing network. And my favorite social observation about
bike-sharing is a problem Rio de Janeiro encountered: people much prefer riding
bikes downhill to riding up. I read somewhere that all the bikes ended up at the bottom of hills and had to be trucked back up. I bet the right payment scheme could solve that problem: charge more for
cycling downhill, pay riders a little to return bikes to the uphill stations.
Anyway, props to
Denver. Anyone there used B-cycle yet?
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