Two more cities offering public bike rental services: Sevilla and Cordoba
Due to the success of the Bicing service in Barcelona and similar services in Lyon and Paris, two more cities have decided to support public bike rental services, Sevilla and Córdoba, in the region of Andalusia (Spain).
The plans for Córdoba are very modest, due to the relative small size of the city: 35 bikes in 4 stations, linking the historic center with spots such as the City Hall and the High Speed Train (AVE) station. The service, called Ciclocity, is free for everybody but requires registering personally at the council offices.
Sevilla has more ambitious plans. First of all, the model will be copied from Lyon's bike, (I'm sure they took note of the strong criticisms that the Barcelona model has) with a beefed up service, named Sevici, with 2,500 bikes available and 250 parking stations distributed in all city districts, managed by JCDecaux. The cost is only 10 EUR/year or 5 EUR/week, with the 30 first minutes of rental for free (1/2 EUR for each additional half-hour). Currently, only two stations are working for free demonstrations in the city center but the complete deployment is expected for mid-2008.
I just couldn't resist mentally comparing this to the Cadillac Seville models and the Chrysler Cordoba...
Related:
[Source: Sevilla and Córdoba City Halls]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ferguson 6:19AM (3/14/2008)
Se acerca la Feria de Sevilla y hay que ir buscando sitio para Dormir en Sevilla, en
Hoteles de Sevilla
Yo dejo aquí estos enlaces para que curiosees un poco .
Saludos!
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Yggdrasilly 9:47AM (7/27/2007)
I'm glad they've finally caught up with Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Tom Kerswill 9:06AM (8/20/2007)
I've just been for a 2-day trip in Seville, and the Sevici system was absolutely fantastic. I hadn't realised it was quite so new as this (seeing the date of your blog entry) - but by the time I got there, in mid August, several of the stations were working. In fact, there was a station within a few minute's walk of pretty much every interesting part of the city.
The first half hour of every journey (not just the first journey you make) appears to be free... so what we did, was break each journey into chunks - if you take your bike back to a station, then get another bike out, you get another half hour.
They've concentrated on bus and train stations - so it's possible to get a bike from the station, cycle into town, and leave it at another station.. the whole thing works great. I hope similar systems are introduced in UK cities!
Tom
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J. Evan 11:00AM (10/13/2008)
I agree with Tom. I just returned from 3 days in Sevilla and we used the bikes to get around town. There is a nice bike path along the north side of the river over the Calatrava Bridge and around the Expo area. It's very nice to ride through the Parks and around the Cathedral.
Every station has an terminal (in Spanish, French and English), like an ATM. Anyone with a credit card can buy a card with a private number that allows you to rent bikes - 5 euro for 7 days or 10 euro per year. Add a PIN number and you're on a bike in minutes. Nearly all the bikes we rented (about 10) were in great shape in mid October 2008. My wife, who normally is not bike crazy felt very comfortable and preferred biking to walking by the second day of pounding the pavement on the uneven streets of Santa Cruz.
Can't wait to see this service in all major cities in Europe and (dreaming) in the US.
Tom Kerswill 1:08PM (2/24/2009)
Yeah - we cycled along the river too - and it's amazing how many bike stations there are there now.
I wish this system could be brought to Manchester, UK!