The second largest bike-sharing program in Italy started today. [TO]Bike of Turin began opening the stations to its 1,200-bicycle and 116 station service. It will be completed and fully operational by the end of the summer. [TO]Bike will be second in size to Milan's very successful and expanding 1,400-bicycle BikeMi system. [TO]Bike is part of the Bicincittà , which has bike-sharing programs throughout Italy and Switzerland. In Turin, the annual subscription to the system is very reasonable at €20 ($24 USD). There is a weekly pass at €5 ($6 USD) and a daily at €2 ($2.40 USD). As with most bike-sharing systems, the first 1/2 hour of usage is at no charge and then each 1/2 hour thereafter escalates in price.
An interesting requirement to use the system is a prepay on your subscription of a minimum of €5 to cover possible overage charges, and a minimum of €3 ($3.55 USD) for the weekly and daily passes for the same. Turin is hoping to best Milan's first year usage statistics of more than 3 usages per bike per day and 35,000 annual, weekly, and daily subscribers (Cymichipnews.)
images: [TO]Bike
Just got back from Turin, and most of these bike racks are full of bikes. I suspect it's because they don't accept credit cards. A phone number and website is provided to learn where to purchase the prepaid cards. A horrible, horrible idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Turin at the moment and after seeing Peters comment was determined to use the system. I live in Barcelona where if you are a tourist it is impossible to use the Bicing system. I found out from reading the information point at each station that there is an office in the centre where you can purchase the cards. The racks also had bikes (and spaces!) and they charge 80c after the first half hour which is free, so a relatively inexpensive way to get around. So i guess they have made some changes since 2010. I recommend everyone to get on it and have a go!
ReplyDeleteI'm heading for Turin this week, and seems like they have resolved the issue for tourists by having special tourist subscriptions available at the tourist offices. See further details here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tobike.it/frmAbbonati.aspx
under "TURISMO TORINO" (Google translate is necessary...).
I hope that it will work fine for us in a few days!