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Bike Share Programs

Old 05-31-15, 10:29 PM
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Bike Share Programs

This is a list of Bike Share Programs

List of bicycle sharing systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does your city or a nearby city have a Bike Share Program?
Have you used it?
Does it appear to be used?
Any other general impressions regarding things like cost, ease of use, etc.?

This list may not be up-to-date. Maybe your city or a nearby city has one but it isn't listed there yet?
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Old 05-31-15, 10:30 PM
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I see Vancouver is planning to launch their program this year:
Public bike share system | City of Vancouver
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Old 06-01-15, 07:21 AM
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We had a bike share program for a while, but it closed down. The owners of the program blamed the bike company, called A2B. The idea was to put the electronics for renting and unlocking the bikes on the bikes themselves, rather than on kiosks or docking stations. This made implementation costs much lower. The bad news was that the system did not work very well so the bikes were unridable much of the time. The good news was that it really was cheaper, so nobody lost much money.
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Old 06-01-15, 04:45 PM
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I don't live car free, or commute, nor do I live near any city where I could do this, but Pittsburgh is my "local" city.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kicked off their bike share program yesterday with shutting down Penn Avenue to automotive traffic in the morning.

New Bike-Share Program Kicks Off In Pittsburgh « CBS Pittsburgh

500 bikes at 50 stations in 11 neighborhoods.

It's Pittsburgh, home of the Dirty Dozen racing 13 of the biggest hills in Pittsburgh, including the steepest road in the US (Canton Ave.) I sure hope the bikes have plenty of low gearing, LOL.
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Old 06-01-15, 08:30 PM
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Originally Posted by Machka
This is a list of Bike Share Programs

List of bicycle sharing systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does your city or a nearby city have a Bike Share Program?
Have you used it?
Does it appear to be used?
Any other general impressions regarding things like cost, ease of use, etc.?

This list may not be up-to-date. Maybe your city or a nearby city has one but it isn't listed there yet?
I said long ago that I would sign onto the Citibike program in New York City instead of using the subway. However, I'm too lazy even though it would pay itself off in 3 months! I'm spoiled with a good subway that runs pretty quick, I don't have to carry a helmet or take chances with the traffic. I"m thinking of just riding one this weekend just for fun. I'm not a bike commuter anymore but more like the millions of other commuters who are transit dependent

Having said all that, the bike share program has been a tremendous success.
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Old 06-01-15, 08:46 PM
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Originally Posted by mrodgers
I don't live car free, or commute, nor do I live near any city where I could do this, but Pittsburgh is my "local" city.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kicked off their bike share program yesterday with shutting down Penn Avenue to automotive traffic in the morning.

New Bike-Share Program Kicks Off In Pittsburgh « CBS Pittsburgh

500 bikes at 50 stations in 11 neighborhoods.

It's Pittsburgh, home of the Dirty Dozen racing 13 of the biggest hills in Pittsburgh, including the steepest road in the US (Canton Ave.) I sure hope the bikes have plenty of low gearing, LOL.
Yeah, I would like to see someone take the Pittsburgh bike share 3 speed up Canton Avenue!
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Old 06-02-15, 04:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Machka
Does your city or a nearby city have a Bike Share Program?
Have you used it?
Does it appear to be used?
Any other general impressions regarding things like cost, ease of use, etc.?
As a dense, compact urban center, with a commitment to cycling infrastructure, Boston is quite amenable to a Bike Share program (Hubway), and it has been wildly successful, as noted in the Wikipedia article. We live within one block of a station, and my wife uses it for fitness cycling.

In general since I work in the suburbs and have a beater bike, I don’t use it, and the trips where I might are easily walked or done by subway. It is nice though to just drop off the bike, and worry no more about it. Stations are plentiful and well-located, and critics even complain about the prime parking spaces lost to the stations.

Bike sharing does seem a great thing for tourists, and I have used the system in Toronto when visiting there. The cost for an extended ride was pretty cheap, certainly less, and more convenient than a bike shop rental.

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
…The rental bikes were very heavy, but well-maintained, and tires properly filled. The three gears were quite suitable for the terrain and soon became pleasant to ride. Like the Hubways, the bikes are conveniently available, for about $8 for 24 hours. They similarly have 30 minute single-ride limits, but an extra half hour was only $1.50. I had become accustomed to renting from bike shops when away. But Bike-Share Programs like this are the way to go; so much more convenient and cheaper…

My son was particularly interested to visit the various ethnic neighborhoods for which TO is famous. Though we walked and took the fabulous subway and streetcar system, cycling would be the ideal way to explore…
Finally, I personally have used Boston’s Hubway system only about twice, but for memorable rides. In 2012 after my rear-ended cycling accident with a fractured sacrum, I had been off the bike for about five months. I was not even sure I could extend my leg over the saddle to mount. With the step-through frame of the Hubway cycle, I could easily get on and ride.

I had been tediously and slowly walking for about 45 minutes to get the train station to get to work, and now it was a ten minute ride. One more trip with a Hubway cycle, and then I brought out the beater bike and gradually worked back up to the entire 14 mile commute, and then full cycling activities.

Last edited by Jim from Boston; 06-02-15 at 05:49 AM.
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Old 06-03-15, 11:54 AM
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No bike share, but you can rent a bicycle in the tourist zone.
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Old 06-03-15, 05:44 PM
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I was walking at lunch yesterday and went past a place advertising bicycle rentals. I've seen it before and it always strikes me as a bit ... different. An art gallery which rents bicycles.

I just looked it up and here it is: ARTBIKES | Arts Tasmania

Apparently you can rent a bicycle for free if you return it on the same day (terms and conditions, of course).


(Hobart doesn't have a bike share program like larger places such as Melbourne do)
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Old 06-03-15, 05:49 PM
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I'm in Memphis, Tennesee, USA. My city is right at the start of a series of town hall style meetings designed to gauge interest and get a sense of what the obstacles might be. A study by the company that would run the program has already been made. Tomorrow night is the first town-hall meeting, which is being held at my co-op. I'll report back here if I hear anything of interest.
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Old 06-03-15, 08:04 PM
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Originally Posted by Machka
I was walking at lunch yesterday and went past a place advertising bicycle rentals. I've seen it before and it always strikes me as a bit ... different. An art gallery which rents bicycles.

I just looked it up and here it is: ARTBIKES | Arts Tasmania

Apparently you can rent a bicycle for free if you return it on the same day (terms and conditions, of course).


(Hobart doesn't have a bike share program like larger places such as Melbourne do)
I'm surprised that in all your travels that you never came across the Free White Bikes of the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, NL.
Unique in every season ? Kröller-Müller MuseumThe museum is the home of some of the greatest 19th and early 20th Century art and has one of the world's greatest collection of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings as well as numerous other priceless masterpieces

The bikes can be used all day for riding in the adjoining Hoge Veluwe Nature Park. The Hoge Veluwe National Park ? Kröller-Müller Museum
The Park covers 5,500 hectares of woodland, heath, grasslands and shifting sands, and is the natural habitat for deer, moeflon and wild boar. On foot or on one of the free White Bicycles, you are free to roam around in nature, to naturally arrive at the museum, the finest treasure-house the Netherlands has to its name. The free White Bicycles (1,800 in total) are stationed at the three entrances to the Park, at the Visitors’ Center and at the museum.



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Old 06-04-15, 06:32 AM
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Originally Posted by Machka
I was walking at lunch yesterday and went past a place advertising bicycle rentals. I've seen it before and it always strikes me as a bit ... different. An art gallery which rents bicycles.

I just looked it up and here it is: ARTBIKES | Arts Tasmania

Apparently you can rent a bicycle for free if you return it on the same day (terms and conditions, of course).


(Hobart doesn't have a bike share program like larger places such as Melbourne do)
Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
I'm surprised that in all your travels that you never came across the Free White Bikes of the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, NL.
Unique in every season ? Kröller-Müller MuseumThe museum is the home of some of the greatest 19th and early 20th Century art and has one of the world's greatest collection of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings as well as numerous other priceless masterpieces

The bikes can be used all day for riding in the adjoining Hoge Veluwe Nature Park. The Hoge Veluwe National Park ? Kröller-Müller Museum
The Park covers 5,500 hectares of woodland, heath, grasslands and shifting sands, and is the natural habitat for deer, moeflon and wild boar. On foot or on one of the free White Bicycles, you are free to roam around in nature, to naturally arrive at the museum, the finest treasure-house the Netherlands has to its name. The free White Bicycles (1,800 in total) are stationed at the three entrances to the Park, at the Visitors’ Center and at the museum.
These both sound like a lot of fun. Machka, would one be able to ride to the MONA on one of those free bikes?
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Old 06-04-15, 06:59 AM
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When visiting Chicago last summer, the Divvy bike share was great in the historic skyscraper district. You can drop off a bike within a few blocks of any destination, then pick up another one to continue onward. And traffic was surprisingly light on the weekend.

It's a whole different mindset from driving or riding your own bike. No need to locate parking, plan your stops, or worry about your locked up bike.


475 stations by this summer. Wow.

The station map, showing how full each station is right now.

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Old 06-04-15, 07:21 AM
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Originally Posted by Roody
These both sound like a lot of fun. Machka, would one be able to ride to the MONA on one of those free bikes?
You probably could if you really wanted to.

The place where they rent the bicycles is a little way up Elizabeth Street, you'd cycle down Elizabeth Street, through the pedestrian mall (might have to walk it there, if there were a lot of people about), and straight down to the water, or just about to the water. That's maybe 800 metres. Then you'd turn left and follow the bicycle paths to the official start of the Cycleway. About 1 km or so. Then you'd cycle the cycleway out to the MONA turnoff. Approx. 11.5 km MONA is about 800 metres off the Cycleway. All up, round trip, it would be about 26 km, and relatively flat because the Cycleway is relatively flat.

There is quite a bit of bicycle parking at MONA.

We cycled there once (with our own bicycles) and spent an afternoon wandering around. It's ... different.
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Old 06-04-15, 07:41 AM
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Originally Posted by rm -rf
When visiting Chicago last summer, the Divvy bike share was great in the historic skyscraper district. You can drop off a bike within a few blocks of any destination, then pick up another one to continue onward. And traffic was surprisingly light on the weekend.

It's a whole different mindset from driving or riding your own bike. No need to locate parking, plan your stops, or worry about your locked up bike.


475 stations by this summer. Wow.

The station map, showing how full each station is right now.

Very impressive. The map though did not have a scale so I could not figure out how large an area it covered. Certainly it is larger than Boston, typical of Midwestern scale.

I once visited Chicago and rode a bike shop rental on the awesome Lakeshore Path. When I got back to Boston and rode one of our major paths, I thought to myself with pride, "How quaint...How Bostonian."

Last edited by Jim from Boston; 06-04-15 at 08:05 AM.
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Old 06-04-15, 02:09 PM
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Our bike share system has been a resounding success ever since it was inaugurated in 2007. The naysayers who said it would never work here have been forced to eat their words. The key to the system's popularity is the excellent cycling infrastructure (140 kms. of connected and segregated bike lanes) we enjoy in the city. Some other towns in the area that do not have such a network have set up bike share programs of their own, and they have been abject failures.

Sevici - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Old 06-05-15, 07:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
Very impressive. The map though did not have a scale so I could not figure out how large an area it covered. Certainly it is larger than Boston, typical of Midwestern scale.

I once visited Chicago and rode a bike shop rental on the awesome Lakeshore Path. When I got back to Boston and rode one of our major paths, I thought to myself with pride, "How quaint...How Bostonian."
One of the benefits of travel is that it makes your home region seem like a new place for a few days!
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Old 06-05-15, 07:49 AM
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Originally Posted by Machka
Does your city or a nearby city have a Bike Share Program?
Have you used it?
Does it appear to be used?
Any other general impressions regarding things like cost, ease of use, etc.?

This list may not be up-to-date. Maybe your city or a nearby city has one but it isn't listed there yet?

Minneapolis has a great bike share program (Nice Ride), the city was an early adopter (started 2010) and it has been very successful.

I don't use the Nice Rides, since I have enough bikes to start my own bike share. However, while traveling, I have used the San Diego, DC, and Chicago bike shares, great stuff.

Minneapolis as great stats for the Nice Ride program. 2013 had over 300,000 trips and 2014 through August exceeded that number. Reference

Minnesota expanded and added a program in a vacation area, Bemidji.

I am surprised the Minneapolis removes all bikes in the winter. New York and Chicago keep the bikes out (in smaller numbers) through the winter.
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Old 06-06-15, 02:41 PM
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I live in the (San Francisco) Bay Area. We ran a bike share "pilot" but it is not in my city. That's coming in the next 18 months.

I haven't tried bike share in SF since I am a little concerned about the busy streets and the kiosks are not convenient to my job in SF. One day I'll try it. Looks popular. I already voted for a few stops in my city.
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Old 06-06-15, 11:03 PM
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What no website has spoken of yet.
These cities that have 'bike-share programs' via private businesses: How do such businesses survive financially & continue in wanting to operate.
As the ones I have looked at: they are not guarded 24/7 with cameras.
Why is this?
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Old 06-06-15, 11:06 PM
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Originally Posted by molten
What no website has spoken of yet.
These cities that have 'bike-share programs' via private businesses: How do such businesses survive financially & continue in wanting to operate.
As the ones I have looked at: they are not guarded 24/7 with cameras.
Why is this?
Insurance.
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Old 06-07-15, 08:44 AM
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Originally Posted by Machka
Insurance.
As you say of insurance: anyone that owns an insured motor vehicle knows that the insurance does not prevent vandalism of any kind. As that be why there be the insurance business.
But I speak about the ones who have the intent/behavior of demanding one's such possessed item.
What stands out (no sic, no exagg) about the 'bike share' is that the bikes are in an open environment.
Why would I want to have interest in such a business? I would not.
The reason why the climate may seem good for now is because of the economy is not as depressed as earlier.
But once the economy gets back into its schizophrenic depression: the 'bike-share' businesses need more caution against those wanting something-for-nothing.
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Old 06-07-15, 09:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
Very impressive. The map though did not have a scale so I could not figure out how large an area it covered. Certainly it is larger than Boston, typical of Midwestern scale.

I once visited Chicago and rode a bike shop rental on the awesome Lakeshore Path. When I got back to Boston and rode one of our major paths, I thought to myself with pride, "How quaint...How Bostonian."
It's just over 20 miles from Loyola Park on the North side to Rainbow Beach Park on the South side. You would have to swap bikes a couple of times to make it without exceeding the 30 minute time limit.
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Old 06-07-15, 02:49 PM
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Originally Posted by molten
What no website has spoken of yet.
These cities that have 'bike-share programs' via private businesses: How do such businesses survive financially & continue in wanting to operate.
As the ones I have looked at: they are not guarded 24/7 with cameras.
Why is this?
Our system loses money, which is covered by the city. It's a good investment because every time someone rides a bike instead of driving, it means less wear and tear on the roads, cleaner air, healthier citizens, less risk of someone being maimed or killed by a car, etc. There was a lot of vandalism during the first year or so after the program was started. Extreme right-wing groups, VC fanatics, cab drivers and drunkards were thought to be responsible for most of it. The vandalism now seems to have disappeared. Not sure why.
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Old 06-07-15, 03:42 PM
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Originally Posted by molten
As you say of insurance: anyone that owns an insured motor vehicle knows that the insurance does not prevent vandalism of any kind. As that be why there be the insurance business.
But I speak about the ones who have the intent/behavior of demanding one's such possessed item.
What stands out (no sic, no exagg) about the 'bike share' is that the bikes are in an open environment.
Why would I want to have interest in such a business? I would not.
The reason why the climate may seem good for now is because of the economy is not as depressed as earlier.
But once the economy gets back into its schizophrenic depression: the 'bike-share' businesses need more caution against those wanting something-for-nothing.
The bikes are locked, and it requires a paid-up membership (or day pass) to unlock them. You leave a deposit (on your credit card) that will reimburse the company if the bike is stolen or vandalized while you are using it. The price structure for rental encourages users to return the bike to a locked kiosk promptly when they are finished with it. For example, if you stop for lunch, it will be much cheaper for you to return the bike to the locked kiosk, rather than prop it up outside the restaurant while you're eating. Thus, users rarely leave the bikes unattended.

Additionally, the bikes have a very distinctive appearance--some think ugly. If you stole the bike and took it home (or to a pawn shop), everybody would recognize it as a bike share bike.

The first generation of bike share programs were almost all financial failures. People have learned a few things about operating the programs since then.
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