Originally Posted by
a b seize
i'm a fan of these...
the first ones were implemented in lyon, france as a test for the whole idea...when i was over there this summer i saw them in barcelona, paris, and lyon. they have racks like this one ^^^ all over the city, you just swipe your card at one rack, the bike unlocks, then you ride to wherever you are going and put it into a rack around there. a lot of people actually ride them, but they aren't in the greatest condition because they don't have enough people or money for the needed maintanence.
Also, I suspect they are not in the greatest condition because they are everyone's and nobody's bikes. I hail from a formerly communist country, and this "effect" is well known to me: what is everybody's it is nobody's, so many feel like they can screw with it.
To be honest, vandalism happens even in non-communist countries, it's just that in (formerly) communist contries there was much more opportunity for crime of this kind.
In Helsinki we have these public bikes here, too - they don't have the basket on the front and are not unlocked with a card but a coin. And they are in a pitiful state just like yours, but what can you do.