A Greener Spin on Things

Many of you might already be aware of the growing trend towards public bike share programs.

Paris' Velib's highly successful program, started in July of 2007, sports 10,000 bicycles. A simple concept perhaps but with theft and vandalism, constructing and maintaining these public share programs can be expensive and can be complicated.

For example one program which launched in Cambridge, UK in 1993, had all of its 300 bicycles stolen during the first day of operation. The program consequently was abandoned. Since then a number of lessons have been learnt. And this type of program has become quite sophisticated.

Canada is also moving to adopt this eco-friendly trend. Montreal is working up to launch Canada's first bike share program. Over the summer Public Bike Share launched a contest dedicated to finding a name for the program. BIXI has been chosen and the program will get into gear spring 2009. In the meantime if you are interested in how some of the more daunting issues around bike share programs have been tackled Public Bike Share has published a website detailing all the bells and whistles of this new program. http://www.publicbikesystem.com/

Enjoy