"Back to the Future" The Bike-sharing World - First Week of September 2016

Europe:

Amsterdam, The Netherlands:
Bikesharing to return to Amsterdam 50 years later!

Urbee for Amsterdam,The Netherlands, Destined for Fall 2016

This fall Amsterdam will go Back to the Future with the deployment of Urbee. The birthplace of bike-share will again see public use bicycles with a high-tech reincarnation of the concept in this world bike capital, nearly 50 years later. These smart lock bikes will be placed around Amsterdam to be shared in the similar fashion that the radical Provo movement's "White Bikes" were from the summer of 1965. This time with a mobile telephone based-app, and GPS location, these bikes promise to be easy to find and use.

Urbee will begin with a soft launch with 300 electric-assist bicycles, or pedelces, with full deployment of 1,150 in the spring of 2017, according to Duurzammnieuws. For those in the Bike-sharing World this is extremely gratifying news as now those men and women who pioneered public use bicycles with White Bikes can ride around Amsterdam with their white hair!

North America

The past few months have seen an explosion of new public use bicycle programs in the USA and Canada. Here is a list from www.bikesharingmap.com:

Alpharettta, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; Aurora, Illinois; Basaslt, Colorado; Beverly Hills, California; Brownville, Harlin & Edinburg, Texas; College Park, Maryland; Clarksville, Tennessee; Columbus, Indiana; Corpus Christi, Texas; Corvallis, Oregon; Fairbanks, Alaska; Fort Collins, Colorado; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Gainesville, Florida; Huntington, Indiana; Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; Long Beach, California; Los Angeles County, California; Mesa, Arizona; Portland, Oregon; Princeton, New Jersey; Rome, New York; Rochester, Minnesota; San Mateo, California; Vancouver, British Columbia; West Hollywood, California; Westfield, Indiana; Westminster, Colorado; and Willets, Colorado. Whew. Now my fingers hurt from typing all that.

This past June, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hosted the Better Bike Share Partnership Conference.
The goal was to find ways to make public use bicycle programs more accessible. Speakers from around the USA recounted the progress made and examples to follow in achieving this goal.

Take note: the North America Bikeshare Association annual conference and meeting starts November 9, 2016. If it's not on your calendar, it should be!

image: Urbee

Russell Meddin          bikesharephiladelphia.org

Keep in touch with The Bike-sharing World with The Bike-sharing World Map. It is the premiere resource for information on cities with Public Use Bicycle programs and the complement to The Bike-sharing Blog. The map can be viewed at www.bikesharingmap.com.

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