Canada is pioneering on the North American continent what Europe has been doing in the following cities for long.
Stockholm, Aix-en-Provence, Rouen, Barcelona (Bicing), Brussels, Copenhagen, Lyon (Vélo'v), Nantes (Bicloo), Paris (Vélib), Toulouse, Pamplona (Cemusa), OYBike, Call a Bike (Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich, Karlsruhe), Copenhagen/Helsinki/Aarhus (CIOS), Oslo, Sandnes, Seville (Sevici) and Vienna.
In Bangalore what is needed is infrastructure for cycling along with planning for the pedesstrians. I am sure our cycle shop franchise can be extended to namma metro stations with help of some tracking and deposit payment systems
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Comments
yes, this idea should be
yes, this idea should be seriously looked at.
apart form the health & envirnmental benefits, its also a good business idea. for autorickshaw drivers who may have to retire their autos, they shd be compensated by being given a licence to operate a cycle hire and cycle maintencance at metro and bus stations etc. in fact, the public trnsport expansion has scope to provide jobs to many people whose livlihoods may be affected if we take measures to decrease private cars, taxis and autos on our roads.
Not takers for MIT Bicycles
The Bicycle idea is good, but many times there are practical problems Just to remind this news from Manipal Institute of Technology:
Few takers for bicycle experiment
The students prefer walking to pedalling as the campus road is steep. They say a ride will make them too tired to concentrate on studies.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1237671
Sanjay Chitnis
Bicycle Hire - Paris Leads
I remember reading about this some time back - an article had quoted Velib of Paris as the leader with the largest network & infrastructure to move bicycles back & forth as necessary, managed by a computerized, online system that determined where bicycles had to be removed from & placed based on where demand was.
In Indian cities, this has huge potential as the no. of users is very large. The task of moving bicycles between, say metro stations & remote pickup & drop-off points, where demand is most must be well structured & organized. Capacities & expertise needs to be developed by roping in private parties.