Bikes Rental system in Europe, why not the US?
By DavidFisher. Filed in Uncategorized |Tags: biking, common sense, cycling, europe, Paris, RFID, socialism, todo, zipcar
So I just watched a thing on CNN.com about bike rentals in Paris. There’s also a Washington Post article on it.
Basically the main idea is this, in order to combat traffic/pollution, add entertainment, and encourage exercise Paris (and about 15 other large European cities) are installing free/cheap bike rental systems all over the city. I think in Paris it is free for up to 30 minutes, and a euro or so per hour afterwards. Unlike something like a Zipcar you don’t have to return the bike to where you got it, just to any bike station. Payment is done via credit card in Paris (using nifty RFID chips that few American credit card companies have embraced), and by a few coins in other cities like Copenhagen.
How many bikes are there? 20,600 at 1,450 stations; a station about every 250 yards (or one a block it sounds like). Not bad! Smaller cities such as Lyon have also launched similar systems.
But maybe that doesn’t sound like much to you? What would ~20,000 less cars look like in Boston? Well, Boston only has about 25,000 public parking spots. While I don’t think that a similar bike deployment would displace that many cars, I do feel that it would have a positive effect.
Additionally, I think the funding should come from the MBTA or similar area. Perhaps I could try to write a grant to fund something like this. Even 20,000 bikes seem cheap compared to a single subway car (which I think is around 5 million USD for whatever reason). Maybe all of the bikes could be painted in a fluorescent pink and it could be the “pink line”. Doesn’t sound anymore stupid than the Silver Line just being busses, which aren’t even electric all of the time.
Why in the world has NO major US city done this? New York, LA, Austin, Miami, Altanta, Philly, Boston, Chicago, DC? Maybe just like the death of the electric car it is some unseen hand at work, or maybe it’s our fat laziness. I mean who would want to ride a bike when you can drive your Hummer H2 down Newbury street?