The Bike -sharing World -The Last week of April 2016

North America
USA:

Over 71,000,000 trips on public bikes in the U.S.A. since 2008

In the last few months there have been a few good and interesting reports about the state of Public Use Bicycling in the United States. These reports have been widely circulated by various media. We at The Bike-sharing Blog welcome all research and reports that further the public use bicycle industry. We assiduously read them all. The most positive report was Bikesharing and Bicycle Safety written by Elliot Martin, Adam Cohen, Jan Botha, and Susan Shaheen for the Minetta Transportation Institute. Their research showed that there had been no fatalities involving public use bicycles as of January 2016 and that public bikes are statically safer than trips on private bikes.

Since I do a lot of research for this blog, I was curious to know just how many public use bicycle trips there have been in USA. The first public program of substantial size was the SmartBike D.C. system in Washington, D.C. which started with 120 bikes and 10 stations in August 2008. Using that as the starting point. I polled individual programs, accessed open data and queried vendors with the question, "Since the launch of your program or system, how many trips have been taken through December 31, 2015." With a 98% response rate, the total is 71,382,780. That is a lot of bicycle trips with no fatalities and an extremely good safety record.

Over 32,000 bikes in the public use bicycle fleet are put in over 3,400 stations throughout 105 Municipalities in the U.S.A.

In early April, the United States Department of Transportation issued a report on the connectivity of Bike-share Stations in the United States. Unfortunately, when first issued, 40 municipalities and 1,000 stations were missing from the totals. By the diligence of this blog and city program operators, it has now been corrected. It is great that the U.S. Department of Transportation understands the importance of public use bicycle programs and how they fit in the greater transportation needs of the United States.

The count of bicycles, stations, and cities comes from The Bike-sharing World Map. These numbers are for programs that are only open to the general public and that are automated and station-based. In the case of a university-owned program, it is only counted if there are stations off-campus and completely available to the general public. Bike libraries and manned programs and corporate and university campuses that are not open to the general public are not surveyed for this count. 

image: ZYP Bikeshare,  Hudson Bikeshare

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. Use this easy web address for viewing the map:  

www.bikesharingmap.com.

Follow the Map on Twitter@BikesharingMap   

The Bike-sharing World - First Week of June 2014

NORTH AMERICA:
USA:
       Washington, DC

sharedusemobilitycenter.org/summits/innovations-in-mobility-summit-2014/

It's not too late to register to take part in the conversations on how Public Policy and government regulations will affect bike-sharing for 2014. Help craft the direction of Public Policy for bike-sharing next week in the Capital City of the USA. See you in DC!

Bemidji, Minnesota:
Nice Ride Minnesota bike-sharing is going into the bike rental business in an upstate Minnesota summer resort town. Bemidji Nice Ride will begin renting bicycles out of four manned locations in the middle of June. There will not be self-service kiosks available as with the Nice Ride program in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

EUROPE:
DENMARK:
Copenhagen:

Bycyklen gobike Station - More Photos

After being one of the first cities to introduce 2nd generation bike-sharing in 1995, with Bycyklen, those odd looking, grocery trolley tethered bicycles, Copenhagen in now offering something close to 4th generation bike-sharing with an odd looking, computer tablet controlled, electric assist - pedelec- called the new Bycyklen for 2014. 
Although already on the streets during testing for a few months, the new program was only opened to public use this April. There has not been the fanfare of an official launch as of yet. Currently though, there are 250 gobikes in 10 stations. From the original plan, the program is scheduled to grow to around 1,250 gobikes in 65 stations.
The price for casual use is 25kr (US$4.50) per hour. With the monthly subscription of 70kr (US$12.75), plus an hourly usage of only 6kr (US$1.00). There are incentives and penalties for picking up or returning the gobikes away from the designated stations. The bikes are a bit heavy, but a cool ride.

ASIA:
CHINA:
Hangzhou:

Hangzhou, China -So many bikes outside the bike station

Reports out of China indicate the Hangzhou now has 78,000 bicycles in its bike-share fleet. According to HangzhouTravel.com, there has been a jump of 10% in daily usage of the program. Nearly 2,000 bicycles need maintenance daily. There are many cities throughout the world that would love to have a fleet of that size! Over 3,000 bikes each month need to be completely overhauled. New maintenance procedures has brought the fleet up to a level of 97% of bicycles with a rating of road worthiness.

Wuhan:

From the Haksong Evening News, is a report that the Xin Feida bike-share program in Wuhan has not been keeping up with its fleet and stations. The news agency reports that there are many stations void of bicycles and that the 300 million yuan (US$48,000,000) investment for the program hasn't fulfilled all of its promises. Hangzhou, China has a truer count on its bike share fleet and now is considered the largest program in the world.

THE WORLD:

Recent internet stories from a policy institute on the state of world bike-sharing in a "2014 Bicycle Share Fact Sheet"  have been lacking in accuracy.  

Since January there are over 700 cities in the world with active automated bike-share programs. Italy is overtaking Spain as the country with the most bike-share cities and China, now in third place, has overtaken Germany.

For a better survey of the bike-sharing world, The Bike-sharing World Map keeps in its legend a running total of the number of cities with automated bike-sharing.

images: The Bike-sharing Blog


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 bike-sharing programs and the complement to The Bike-sharing Blog. The easy web address for viewing the map is www.bikesharingworld.com.

Follow the Map on Twitter@BikesharingMap

The Bike-sharing World - Third Week of April 2014

ASIA:
China:
                        Heihe, Heilongjiang

With Russia across the river, Chinese soldiers patrol the border using Bike-share

As military tensions build this month along the shared Russian and Ukrainian border, the Chinese Border Patrol along the Heilongjiang River that separates the City of Blagoveshchensk, Russia from the City of Heihe, China, have started using bike-sharing. According to The China Network, the bikes increase the ability of the soldiers to perform their duties on the border as well as move around Heihe without needing heavy vehicles. 

However, the soldiers must return the bikes within one hour to avoid usage fees!

image: Wei Jianshun Photography

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 bike-sharing and complement to The Bike-sharing Blog. The easy web address for viewing the map is www.bikesharingworld.com.

Follow the Map on Twitter@BikesharingMap

The Bike-sharing World - Third Week of September 2013

EUROPE:
Italy:

Bike-sharing on Both Sides of the Law

Arezzo:
  

Police Officer - Arezzo, Itally

In celebrating European Mobility Week, the citizens of Arezzo, Italy have been asked to forgo their cars and to get around town by bicycle, or by foot. In keeping with this goal, the local bike-sharing program, ARbike, is giving the police access to their bike-share bicycles. The Police will use these bicycles to patrol the city and keep the police cars and motorcycles in the city garage according to the news source: ArezzoNotizie.

Over in Milan, Italy, MilanoToday is reporting that a stolen bikeMI bike-share was used in an illicit drug transaction. The Police arrested both the buyer and the seller. The recovered drug bike was dragged back to the station! 

Milan:

Secretive bikeMi Pedaled in darkness

This shows that Bike-sharing is so popular that everyone is using it, no matter on what side of the law, one rides!

NORTH AMERICA:

USA:

San Francisco:

This Summit, in San Francisco, California on October 10th and 11th, 2013, is one of the first conferences in the United States covering bike-sharing which is open to the public. It is not just for government or transportation officials, but for everyone interested in the bike-sharing phenomenon. The Shared Use Mobility Summit will have speakers who were instrumental in making Bike-sharing happen in North America and Europe. There will be panel discussions on how to make Bike-sharing work well. There is also the possibility that new bike-share systems will be on display at the Summit!

There is still time for discounted registrations through September 16, 2013: Register Now

The web address for the Summit: sharedusesummit.org. If you or your city are planning a Bike-sharing program, this Summit should not be missed! Oh yes, there will be segments on car-sharing too!

Mexico:

Mexico City:

Ecobici Ride - Mexico City

Impressive usage numbers were reported this summer for Mexico City's Ecobici. With over 3250 bicycles in active use throughout 268 stations, by the end of July, over 9 million trips were taken since the program started. The number of subscribers has exceeded 95,000. On August 28, 2013 over 28,800 trips were taken in one day. Earlier this year, the system was finally opened for daily use by non-residents according to El Sol de Mexico and El Universl. 

Just as impressive, are the results of studies by MercadoLibre, the online retailer, and The Del La Riva Group - Mexico. These studies, as reported in tera-economia, attribute the success of Ecobici as one of the factors in the 50% increase of online bicycle purchases in Mexico. This is another instance that shows bike-sharing helps stimulate bicycle business in North America.

THE WORLD:

Who will be the 4,000,000th person to view The Bike-sharing World Map? In less than four years four million people from all over the world have come to recognize The Bike-sharing World Map as the premiere resource for information on cities with bike-sharing. Are you the 4 millionth viewer? Here is the new easy web address for viewing the map: www.bikesharingworld.com

(Update: The four millionth viewer studied the map on September 16, 2013)

Follow the Map on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/BikesharingMap

See the O'Brien Global Bike Share Map which shows real time bike usage in over 100 cities!

images: Arrezo Notizie, BikeMi Calendar, mas por mas/DF,

Russell Meddin              bikesharephiladelphia.org

Copenhagen is getting ready to GOBIKE

GOBIKE - Copenhagen's Bycyklen Replacement

Just after terminating its 17-year old coin-operated Bycyklen bike-share system, Copenhagen City Hall has changed its mind and will fund a new system for 2013 according to The Copenhagen Post. The new Bycyklen is GOBIKE! 

GOBIKE is the newest version of the Urbikes system, from a company based in Barcelona, Spain. There are a few innovations scheduled for the Copenhagen system. The most intriguing is the utilization of some of the research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology SENSEable City Laboratory programs: CopenCycle and The Copenhagen Wheel. GOBIKE riders will have real time information at their figure tips with a touch screen computer between the handle bars as they negotiate the one of the world's leading cycle-friendly cities.

The on-board computer will plan your route with a map display. It can give real-time transport schedule information with ticketing integration. It can furnish information on activities in areas through which you are cycling. Real-time bike and docking station availability is displayed as well.

To make it easy to find and take a bike, a smart phone app will locate the nearest bike and allow you to reserve it. Whether or not the app will reserve an empty slot to return the bike is yet to be seen! This system will really be the beginning of 4th generation bike-sharing.

The city will install 2,000 GOBIKES at bike-share stations near public transport hubs to achieve seamless transfers from train, tram, and bus. The bikes have a shaft drive instead of a chain system and puncture-proof solid tires to reduce maintenance needs. The system is scheduled to stay open all year round.

Keep reading The Bike-sharing Blog for GOBIKE's inauguration as it happens. 

The Bike-sharing World Map is the #1 global resource for bike-sharing systems. Keep up-to-date with the changing bike-sharing world by visiting us.

images: GOBIKE

Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

Capital Bikeshare Cost Recovery in Arlington, VA

How did Arlington’s portion of Capital Bikeshare do in its second year of service? Are Arlingtonians and visitors using the service? How many trips are made and how much was spent? These questions and a lot more are discussed in Arlington County’s “FY12 Summary Report on Capital Bikeshare”. The report’s highlights include the service’s continued cost recovery growth, annual key indicator data, member survey analysis, and accomplishments.

Not to spoil the conclusion for you, but yes, the service had a good year. The County expanded Capital Bikeshare throughout the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor during this time period, more than doubling its number of stations from 18 to 41 and bikes from 123 to 286. With the additional stations and bikes came an increased cost recovery ratio – the percentage of revenues divided by expenses. Fiscal Year 2011 had a 53% cost recovery ratio and FY12 saw an increase to 64%. 

Arlington’s portion of the service had $411,000 in revenues from memberships, user fees, and sponsorships and $473,000 in operations expenses, plus $170,000 in management and marketing – totaling $643,000 in expenses. The number of trips starting and ending in Arlington increased by about 280% to 88,613 (trips starting) and 86,438 (trips ending). The number of miles ridden in Arlington increased 343% to about 95,000 miles, which helped remove nearly 64,000 pounds of CO2 from the air. The service also got us more active and we burned over 4.1 million calories to be fit.

The Report also discusses our accomplishments, such as our partnership with Bank on DC, Transit Development Plan, map panels design updated, marketing campaign, and call center improvements. The report can be found online at BikeArlington.com. 

(cross-posted on BikeArlington.com)

Bycyklen is Dead. Long Live Bycyklen!

The City of Cyclists won't be modernizing its bike-sharing service any time soon due to a decision by the Copenhagen City Council. They recently voted not to fund a modernization of one of the earliest bike-sharing services, Bycyklen, which was born in 1995 and is still in operation. Rather than smart cards and solar stations, this service uses a coin deposit lock and the honor system which had worked reasonably well in its early years, but hasn't been maintained properly by its present operator -- AFA JCDecaux. 

According to The Copenhagen Post, Ayfer Baykal, Copenhagen's deputy mayor for technical and environmental affairs, "defended the city’s decision not to invest in the cycle sharing scheme this year.

“They’re junk, I agree with [the Danish Cyclist Federation] on that issue. The city bike scheme, as it exists today, needs to be updated. It is old and outdated. But right now we need to prioritize.”

Deputy Mayor Baykal continues, “The city bike scheme is primarily for people coming from outside the city because Copenhageners have their own bicycles. I have chosen to prioritize better cycling conditions in Copenhagen through improved bicycle lanes and bicycle parking instead of the bicycle sharing system.”

What better way to help tourists experience the city than the way Copenhageners do - by bike? If a Bycyklen or other bike-share bike isn't available to a tourist, he or she could just as easily use a taxi or rent a car. To the environment, it doesn't matter whether the pollution comes from a resident or a tourist, but rather that the pollution is created. Also, tourists are the most profitable user segment as they contribute more financially than residents do through day membership or per minute fees.

While Copenhageners are bike-friendly, do they always bring their bike with them? I too live in a city with a growing bike mode share and frequently go by bike, but sometimes I just don't have my bike with me. The local bike-share service, Capital Bikeshare, frequently helps me get from point A to point B. I could otherwise take the train or drive.

The 150 million Danish kroner (26 million USD) will instead be used to make cycling improvements in the city, which is not a bad second place project, however, a piece of reality in how local governments are stretched thin for funding for many deserving projects. Additionally, the end of Bycyklen is near as the contract with AFA JCDecaux for the service expires October 31. Not sure what will happen after that with bike-sharing.

On a personal note, Bycyklen got me interested and excited about bike-sharing back in 1995 as I read about the new Bycyklen on-line and went to Copenhagen for a semester abroad to learn about bike-sharing and this quaint modern bike-friendly city which I, in turn, fell in love with. I was back last year in a professional capacity to work with the Cities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg and DSB in developing the public tender for a new operator and vendor. Hopefully the Council will see the value of modernizing the bike-sharing service not only to regain a worldwide leadership in bike-sharing that it once had.

The Bike-sharing World: Second Week of April 2012

North America:
              Canada
   
Speculation is swirling in Canada that Public Bicycle Share Company (PBSCo), bIXI in Montréal, will be sold to SERCO, the operator of Barclays Cycle Hire, according to the CBC. Ever since the government in Quebec made it clear that PBSCo had no authority to market bike-sharing internationally and that the international sales had to be shut down or sold, SERCO has been considered the most likely buyer.

When speaking of the possible sale, Roger Plomondon, the retiring President of PBSCo, said, "It would be very sad to see, but from an economic point of view, they’re probably the most motivated potential buyer." With a large investment in the Barclays Cycle Hire program and the desire to expand, SERCO needs to protect its supply line for the bikes and stations. The same is true for Alta Bicycle Share. With 10,000 bikes destined for New York City and 3,000 bikes for Chicago, Alta and the cities under contract with Alta need the disposition of PBSCo to be settled.

                   USA

Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, announced during at the city's "CicLAvia" today plans for a new bike-sharing program to cover downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Playa del Rey, Westwood and Venice Beach. More details are in his press release. The system would have 4,000 bikes and 400 stations and might start deployment by the end of 2012.   

According to the LA Times, the program will cost $16 million. The system would not use City funds. It would be set up and run by Bike Nation, a California Bike-share Company. Bike Nation is in the process currently of setting up a pilot program of 150 bikes for Anaheim, California. It should begin late this spring or early summer.

Europe:

              Spain

What does a system do with old bikes that are serviceable but past their prime, especially when replacements are delivered? The City of La Coruña will give away older bikes of the Bicicoruña system to Asociación Mobi-Liza which will distribute them, upon request, to people who have fewer resources to buy one. The City sees this as an initiative to further promote cycling as a means of transport to its citizens. This is worthy re-cycling of bike-sharing bicycling.

images: The Bike-sharing Blog, Bike Nation, Bicicoruña

Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

DECOBIKE in Great Shape Its First Year

With Decobike, life is a beach

March 15th marked the first anniversary of DECOBIKE. Everyday each DECOBIKE is used on average 5 to 6 times by residents, tourists, and the Beautiful People who flock to Miami Beach, Florida. DECOBIKE is the first privately funded city-wide bike-sharing system in North America. It has completed its first year by logging close to 720,000 rides, with 100,000 in the last 30 days.

Starting with 550 bikes, there are now 800 bikes in the system. Soon there will 1,000 bikes rolling through the Miami Beach streets and next to the ocean. In its first year, 4% of the City's residents have subscribed to the long-term membership option. The program is celebrating its anniversary financially in the black.


Next week, DECOBIKE expands into the neighboring community of Surfside just north of Miami Beach. Even further north in May, a new DECOBIKE system with 400 bikes debuts in Long Beach, New York, just outside New York City.


As with all bike-sharing systems, DECOBIKE proves that all bike-share users are Beautiful People.


image: DecoBike


Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

Boris Bikes Ballooning

Area of most of the new Barclays Cycle Hire stations (circled in red)

Londoners woke up this morning to a newly expanded Barclays Cycle Hire.  2300 new bikes in 200 new stations mostly on the east side of the city. These new stations had been scheduled for 2012 since the launch of the system in July 2010, but it was impressive that new bikes were put out and the stations turned on over night.


In other London news, according to the Daily Beast, Queen Elisabeth was diplomatic about her thoughts on the Boris Bikes. At an event with Mayor Boris Johnson, the Queen said, "At least I didn’t have to come down here on one of your bikes, The mayor responded,"Oh gosh, don’t you like my bikes?" Then she said,"Oh yes, I think they’re lovely. In fact I notice the bike racks are often empty!"


Well at least the system is being used enough for the Queen to notice. Good work London!


image: TfL


Russell Meddin      bikesharephiladelphia.org

Weather or Not to Bike-share

Snow-covered London's Barclays Cycle Hire

Is it ever too cold to bike-share? A rather mild North American winter and a pretty rough Central European winter is causing a lot of thought on whether or not to bike-share in winter weather.

As was posted here on December 12, 2011, many bike-sharing systems around the world went into hibernation in December. A notable exception is Canada's Toronto bIXI. It has stayed open and enjoyed the milder winter. Last month, Toronto celebrated the "Coldest Day of the Year" bike ride. It was not very cold and one can see the bike-share bikes are right up front in the photo below.

According to the Gazette, the spokesman for both the Montréal and Toronto bIXI systems, Michel Philibert, indicated that they will watch Toronto's experience, as that city embarks on its first winter with a bIXI service to determine if Montréal should stay open through winter as well. He also had respectable usage numbers for Toronto's system on the winter days that are above freezing. The most northern systems in Asia are the Tianjin Binhai New Area Public Bicycle and the pilots programs in Beijing, China which are open and operating in the winter cold. Although the most northern system in Europe, Trondheim, Norway's Bysykkel is in winter hibernation, the northern German city of Hamburg has StadtRAD rolling. Even in winter with snow or just cold, it seems there can be bike-sharing in the world's upper latitudes.

bikeMi in Milan, Italy this month

Anyone can ride in the winter 

Not only latitude, but altitude also effects the weather. At the foot of the Rocky Mountains at 5,400 ft (1,650 m) above sea level, Colorado's Boulder B-cycle has left two of its stations open for the winter. The locations near the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research will test how the stations, bikes, and users fare in the extreme temperatures. They hope the lessons learned will allow year-round service. 

As for bike-share users, here is a link on tips from ICEBIKE for the winter cyclist. Enjoy riding in the snow, if you have some!

images: Barclays Cycle Hire, The Torontoist, bikeMi on CNTV, Rider from Flickr: comedy_nose

Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

The Bike Sharing World - First Week of January 2012

Europe:
     UK:

London's Barclays Cycle Hire shares some pretty impressive statistics as it starts 2012. There are now almost 146,000 subscribing members to the 6,000 bike system. That compares to Barcelona with 120,000 current subscribers for 6,000 bikes and Paris with 209,000 subscribers for 20,000 bikes. Although it does not top Dublin, which has the highest ratio of subscribers to bikes with 38,000 subscribers to 550 bikes, London is very respectable!
Also, a most interesting statistic is that in the one year that 'Boris Bikes' have been open to "casual users" or walk-ups, there have been 2,030,000 of them. That averages to around 5,400 a day! These statistics were posted on the Barclays Cycle Hire web site at Key Facts this week.


Oy!
Bike-sharing is terminated in Cardiff, Wales. OYBike suspended its bike-sharing service there the last week of December. It was not able to find replacement funding for the Cardiff Council's subsidy which covered the £70,000 ($110,000 US) yearly operating cost. The service which started in November 2009, had 2,000 subscribers when it closed.


     Spain:


Barcelona's Bicing increases it annual membership cost from €35 ($45 US) to €44 ($56 US). It is estimated that the 120,000 annual memberships are only paying about 21% of the yearly operating cost, according to El País Catalona. The system is contemplating selling advertising on the bicycles or on the stations as a way to cover more of the operating expenses of the system.  

Update: €4 of the new Bicing membership is a mandatory insurance policy to cover third-party claims, first-party injury or damage and legal assistance for the user.


Asia:
     China:


Wuhan's 70,000 bikes tops Hangzhou's 60,600 bikes!

The City of Wuhan on the Yangtze River is claiming the title of the largest bike-sharing system in the world with 70,000 bikes! The Municipal Government for 2012 is consolidating the non affiliated bike-sharing companies into one system for the city.  New automated stations are starting to be installed in the city. According to Chinanews, the city wants to integrate all public transportation into a unified system. 


North America:
     USA:
Cities in the US have embraced bike-sharing during 2011. Many new systems were launched and many older systems were expanded.  These will be considered minor occurrences compared to the expectations for 2012. Just between New York City and Chicago, 13,000 new bikes will hit the American streets. Add to that, Chattanooga, Baltimore, the City of San Francisco with the Bay Peninsula, the City of Miami, Houston, probably Nashville, Charlotte and Portland will all put bike-share bikes on the street. Let us not forget that the suburban communities of both Boston and Washington, DC will rolling out more stations and bikes too. 2012 will give North America a high ranking in the Bike-sharing World.


South America:
     Brazil:

In Rio de Janeiro Samba now dances with a new name, BikeRio. It is an expansion of the old bike-sharing system which now covers much more of the city, and not just the beaches. There are now 600 bikes spread out over 35 stations with another 25 on the way for the start of 2012. It cost 5R$ ($2.70 US) for the one day or 10R$ ($5.45 US) for a monthly pass. Registration for the system is online for more than the one day pass. While the one day can be acquired by mobile telephone. BikeRio has increased popularity because the original system had cost 10R$ for just one day. There is no extra charge for the first sixty minutes of use, but it cost 5R$ for each additional hour. The new system gained sponsorship by itaú, the Brazilian Bank, at the end of October and has prospered since. BikeRio itaú is operated by Mobilidade same company that ran Samba.


Don't forget to check out bike-sharing in your part of the world on The Bike-sharing World Map.


images: The Bike-sharing Blog, El País Catalona, Chinanews, XinFeida, BrasilAtual


Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

Bike-sharing Designed to Fit More than the Average José

Gandia, Spain is the one of the first cities to adapt its bike-sharing service, labici, for persons with disabilities. With 500 bikes at 40 stations, the municipality decided to introduce bicycles for those with disabilities as a trial program. According to laprovincias, the Councillor for Traffic and Mobility for the City of Gandia, Vicent Mascarell, is proud of his city's "commitment to equality" to persons with disabilities." A successful experiment here could lead to more bike-sharing services following Gandia's lead.

In the bike-sharing world as May winds down, Hawaii B-cycle (Kailua, USA), Boulder B-cycle (Boulder, USA) and StadtRad Berlin (Berlin, Germany) started today. Capital bIXI (Ottawa, Canada) started on Wednesday and Madison B-cycle (Madison, USA) starts on Sunday. At this rate of new service launches, The Bike-sharing World Map will soon be rolling with more bike icons than blank space!

Happy Bike to Work Day for readers in the United States!

[Check out Russell Meddin's guest article this month at Renault's Sustainable Mobility website. - Paul]

image: laprovincias.es

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org