Also, I am curious how much £1 translates into in US dollars. That would also influence whether I would use them. If it is cheep enough for the common man to rent them regularly, then that is even better. If the cost isn’t any lower than taking public transportation, I’m not sure it would catch on.

But all in all, what a great idea to lessen pollution, traffic congestion, and waist lines!!

I have to say though that final picture you show there with the numerous bikes is not in London. It’s a picture from my uni town in Belgium. It’s taken in Leuven near the trainstation, most likely during the weekend as many students drive their bike to the trainstation to go home over the weekend to get their laundry done.

You could say there is an unspoken bikesharing practice in Leuven as well. Leave your bike unlocked and it’s free take, which of course forces the owner of the bike to take another one. Let’s say no student will ever use a bike in Leuven worth more than 100$…

Mcneal

it’s a vicious circle – the more dangerous cycling is perceived to be, the fewer people cycle, more cars on the road – the more cars on the road, the fewer cyclists, and fewer drivers who know how to treat two-wheeled traffic – so cycling becomes more dangerous and fewer people cycle.
but this can work the other way – more people cycle, it becomes more visible – perceived as safer, so more people cycle – higher visibility & more cyclist – more demand for cycle routes, maybe even more drivers learn how to cope with two-wheelers.
wishful thinking?

Even without free bikes we have a fantastic public transport system (especially in London) with the tube and the buses (which would run smoothly on clear, car free roads).

Banning the personal car would leave the roads open for the important uses of freight, businesses that require transport of heavy items, public transport and the emergency services.

Its time to realize that allowing across-the-board use of huge tin boxes that pump filth and fumes into the atmosphere (as well as occasionally killing/maiming innocent pedestrians/road users) for the sake of a misguided belief in every individuals right to that “convenient” mode of transport is choking our cities.

If people still didn’t like public transport for whatever reason (fear, snobbishness etc) then maybe they would learn just how convenient riding a bike can be. I know I’ll never swap mine for a car.

Getting more people out of their cars (or off the cramped public transport) and onto bikes is a fantastic idea, but is this really the most cost-effective solution? We charge people to ride the bikes they’ve already payed for (via taxes).

The likely situation for an average commuter– find the nearest bike stand, hoping it’s somewhere near your residence, work out how to get there. Great, free half an hour, head off to work, oh.. can’t keep the bike for the day (it would cost you more then a travelcard for the same time) so again, you need to park it and get yourself the final way to work. It just seems.. lacking.

You could buy a nice commuter bike for a hundred pounds, especially if you’re buying in vast quantities. So why not work our a more social scheme. Buy 750,000 bikes and dispense them to people who are most likely to use them, that’s roughly one in ten people for the whole population of London. Every civil servant, every teacher, every kid, find the demographics that fit and push to them, the population of central is only 8 million right? Imagine getting just hitting a small percentage of that, it would be incredible for some many reasons.

It all just seems rather wasteful, seventy-five million is a great deal of money and it’s including a rental fee too?

Alternatively, put the money into better bike paths and perhaps people will feel more willing to get onto bikes– I used to have to travel right through London to get to Camden Town and I can assure you, the bike lanes, are few and far between. Some areas are brilliant, Camden has some entirely dedicated lanes, physically seperated from the traffic– but the vast majority are still two feet wide, seperated from the traffic by a white line– and nine times out of ten, blocked by parked cars. Great fun if you’re into cycling, but for a quiet commute, maybe too much.

http://www.ebikehub.com

The main problem is here in France, people dont seem to worry about cycling in pedestrian areas and on pavements like they do in London, so at least you UK guys wont suffer from being run down by Velob!!

It is great to see more bicycles here i London! Now they just have to get better roads as well….

Take care in the traffic!

not everyone in portland has a bike! I’ve been saving up to buy one, if we had a program like this, I would have started bike commuting months ago. If any american city should try it, we should… actually i think i heard that we did try it and it didnt work out…

Perhaps the Mayors of Australia are reading this? Or perhaps they are just too busy planning tunnels and bridges and roads – oh my (its just like in the Wizard of Oz)…….. Mayors – your challenge in the lead up to the Local Government elections is to act now. Let’s also find a way to get around the aversion by people to ‘sharing’ the mandatory cycle helmet, and Councils/developers/planners – start providing appropriate beginning/end of trip facilities for cyclists. Then people – I hope we will have a winner

The other HUGE challenge of course is changing the attitudes of the car bound masses to the the way they see, and act to bike riders. Being a cyclist, I see the absolute vitriol that gets spat our way, by means of abuse, eggs, bottles, and of course drivers hurling their own cars at unsuspecting cyclists….. oh the inhumanity.

Undoubtedly this type of program will be best implemented when supported by city administrators giving parts of the public realm – both onroad, and in open space/recreational places – back to cyclists and pedestrians (as well as actually applying proper and appropriate penalties to drivers who see cyclists as target practice).

Here in Australia the number of bikes sold each year is far outstripping the number of cars bought. Its about time we fully acknowledged the potential of the humble bicycle as a means of addressing the conjoined challenges of sustainability/mobility/climate change/healthy cities/healthy humans.

As Freddie Mercury sang – Get on your bikes and ride….