Bike Share in Paris
July 18th, 2007[ General ]
This is just plain cool….Paris just launched a bike sharing program with 10,000 bikes. Why aren’t our major cities doing something truly innovative like this? Sure I haven’t seen it in practice but I love the idea of coming out of Union Station, paying a buck or two to get a bike that I ride to my destination and return to the drop off point there.
“Customers can pick up a bicycle from one of 750 self-service points. If no bikes are available, renters are directed towards a well-stocked point nearby. After identifying themselves and providing credit or debit card details, users can take out a bike. A day pass costs EUR 1, allowing users as many rides as they like, provided each trip is less than 30 minutes. An additional half hour is EUR 1, with prices climbing for additional time used; the pricing model is aimed at encouraging quick turnover. Bikes can be returned at any service point. Once all 1,451 are in place (end of 2007), the nearest service point will never be far off — one every 300 metres, which means they’ll be 4.4 times as densely distributed as metro stations. The number of bicycles will also be doubled, bringing the total to 20,600.”