It's taken decades to spread Amsterdam's failed bicycle share plan across the globe. Two-wheelers powered by men and women, children and students, both fit and unfit, is on the rise as a main mode of public transportation. Green activists and environmentalists have motivated city planners like never before. But the 1960s never made it happen, so why would it work now? Today's world has more people, more unemployment, more unrest, more pollution, more cars, more buses, more everything. As risky as it seems, these challenges are motivating more municipal planners to take a gamble with bikes in order to change how people get around town. But can people do it?
Vélib — Paris's Rent-a-Bike system, launched in July 2007.
It all started in Lyons, France's second largest metropolitan area after Paris. Lyons's Vélo'v, a successful bike rental system in operation since 2005, is widely viewed as a model version of Schimmelpennink's White Bicycle Plan. Using a sophisticated system of sensors that can check the bikes for a safe and timely return, Vélo'v is based on a credit card swipe that charges an initial deposit. It's Parisian clone, Vélib, got off to a bumpy start.
Within the first year of the Parisian program, three riders were killed. Traffic in Paris being what it is — a dizzying motion of vehicles that know no lanes and have fender-bender dents to prove it — makes it difficult for cars and bicyclists to get along. Then there's the social factor. According to the New York Times, by August of 2009, 16,000 bikes were vandalized or stolen. The program only had 20,600 bikes at its start. While some bikes reportedly ended up in Africa and Eastern Europe, others were yanked out of the Seine River.
Despite nightmarish scenarios, demand for the bikes is high. With 1,450 rental stations, it's the largest bike sharing system in the world.
BIXI — Montreal's Rent-a-Bike system, launched in May 2009.
Modeling itself after Vélib, BIXI has become the largest bike sharing system in North America with a mere 5,000 bikes distributed throughout the city's downtown area via 400 stations. On the heels of Toronto's failed BikeShare (2001-2006), BIXI's aim is to keep administrative costs low since it was these costs that kept BikeShare reliant on grants and subsidies, which eventually dried up. Already a success, BIXI has farmed itself out to London and Boston, where organizers are implementing customized versions of the program. Wireless RFID technology, commonly used to tag Wal-Mart items, has helped BIXI curb theft and track the bikes.
If BIXI continues its progress and starts popping up everywhere like Starbucks, it can generate the kind of widespread lifestyle change that green activists and health experts dream about. For cities like Seattle that have green lit ambitious Bicycle Master Plans promising new bike lanes, trails and overpasses, progress is cautionary as local leaders will have to control potential runaway spending for the new infrastructure.
Bike sharing programs that are already in numerous countries, including China, India, Australia, Colombia, Norway and Spain, as well as in major US cities, are making use of the latest technologies to thwart the bad bicyclists who hop on and take off, never to return to a station. If theft can be minimized, Planet Bike is bound to flourish, as there seems to be no shortage of Lance Armstrong fans and flat-abs enthusiasts. Even regular people who don't mind working up a sweat are ready and willing to ditch their cars, bus routes and walks so they can peddle their way to their next destination. NewsSip
Credits: Photo - Amsterdam by Mauricio Pelligrinetti; Illustration - Manuel Robbe Affiche pour les cycles Plasson; Photo - Beijing by The Port of Authority (talk)
