Rome follows Lyon, Barcelona, Paris: New public bike rental service
Our readers surely know about the public bike rental services that are currently being installed around Europe: First city was Lyon, then Vienna (now canceled suspended for winter), Barcelona, Seville and Paris. Rome, which is a city with serious transit problems, has decided to give it a try as well. Other cities such as Madrid and San Francisco have sent representatives to Barcelona and Paris to check the possibility of installing similar systems.
Rome's city hall has hired a Spanish company called Cemusa, which is specialized in urban advertising (billboards, bus stops...), to provide this service. Clear Channel provides Barcelona's service and JCDecaux is doing the same in France.
The initial plans are a modest deployment of 250 bicycles in 22 stations, which will be placed in Rome's historical center, starting January 2008. Should this pilot program work, Rome's City Hall will deploy more than 20,000 vehicles around the entire city.
[Source: Europa Press via Econoticias]
[Edited: Thanks to Robert for the correction]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ferguson 5:38AM (3/13/2008)
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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GoodCheer 10:08AM (11/19/2007)
I am concerned that starting slowly may mean the program fails to get off the ground. You couldn't start any other kind of mass-transit system (which is in effect what this is) with only one bus or train a day, the lack of convenience would keep people away. I think for cities with the right climate this scheme should work wonders, but I fear it takes the political/economic balls to jump in with two feet, which Rome is failing to do.
I hope they prove me wrong.
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Xavier Navarro 10:17AM (11/19/2007)
Actually I think it's a sensible method of introducing the system. I know personally Barcelona's experience and after the timid start, the stations are flourishing and they have already increased threefold the capacity of the system.
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Fabio 3:08PM (11/19/2007)
In Bologna, Italy, you can get to ride a bike for free all day, as can be seen here: http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/c/3/a/highres_2632282.jpeg
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Robert 3:29PM (11/19/2007)
Actually Vienna is working quite well and is by no means canceled (just interrupted due to weather conditions - some call it winter...).
Currently there are 54 bike stations with roughly 1,000 bikes and (if you believe their counter) well over 1 mio km biked this year.
First hour is free, second costs 1 EUR. A Credit card or temporary tourist card is required and so is registration (through Internet).
More details under www.citybikewien.at
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