Bike-sharing Demonstrations:
August 2nd in San Francisco
During the Car-Free Sunday road closure in Golden Gate Park on John F. Kennedy Drive at Conservatory Drive East from 10 AM to 3:30 PM, MUNI (San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority), and City CarShare wants you to try out the BiXi, system of Bike-sharing.
August 8th, 15th and 22nd in New York City:
Enjoy “Summer Streets!” While Park Avenue is closed to motor vehicle traffic from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge on these three consecutive Saturdays 7 AM to 1 PM, there will be bike-sharing demonstrations of bicycles and automated docking stations from various international companies. These will include: B-cycle, BiXi, Eco Trips, NY400-Bike & Roll and Samba. The times and locations will be on the NYCDOT Summer Streets page.
August 11th and 12th in and around Seattle
At the Discover Center in South Lake Union in Seattle on Tuesday, 10 AM to 6 PM, August the 11th come and compare the bikes from: B-cycle, The Bike Share Group and BiXi, If that isn’t enough, come over to Redmond Town Center on Wednesday, 12 PM to 8 PM, August the 12th and do it all over again.
August 14th and 16th in Portland, Oregon
Spend a bike-sharing weekend in Portland on Friday August 14th at the Pavilion in Waterfront Park just under the Burnside Bridge and on Sunday August 16th at the Southeast Portland Sunday Parkways Event along the route between Colonel Summers and Mt. Tabor Parks. The reward will be an array of different bike-sharing companies: B-cycle, The Bike Share Group, BiXi, and Portland Bicycle Tours are all asking riders to give them a try. Schweers Technologies originally scheduled as a participant will not attend.
August is a great month for travel and biking. So share you travel time, enjoy these events and learn more about bike-sharing!
2 comments:
There don't seem to be too many capable or interested companies. The only serious contenders at any of these public demos seem to be Bixi, Bcycle, and Samba. The rest appear to be too small and inexperienced. Then of the three contenders, only Bixi seems to have created a robust bike and station that can withstand heavy use and abuse. Bcycle and Samba don't seem to have learned from Velib's experience that you need a really strong bike, a good locking system and an efficient smartcard system. Both of their bikes just look flimsy with inadequate locks. Samba even has a regular derailleur on their bike which would fall apart in no time.
As Bixi showed, the key is in keeping repairs and theft down to a minimum so that the operation can be covered through user fees.
Herb
ibiketo.ca
B-cycle's cable lock is not part of the docking system. It's only there to allow the rider to temporarily lock the bike up while he/she stops for coffee, etc.
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