Self-service bicycle rental system coming to Washington DC
A new self-service bicycle rental service called SmartBike is launching in the nation's capital. Docking stations for the bicycles will be located at ten locations around Washington, DC. To use the bikes, people will have to buy a $40 annual membership. Subscribers will get an ID card that they pass in front of the reader on the docking stations. The station will then unlock one of the bikes so it can be used. The bikes can be returned to any of the docking stations. The bikes can be used for up to 48 hours at a time. If a bike is not returned in that time the subscriber will get billed $200 for the bike. [Source: SmartBike]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin Nugent 9:06PM (4/28/2008)
But what did they choose such ugly biked. added to the fact that they have no gears . Washington dc is not exactly the flattest city ever .
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GoodCheer 9:35PM (4/28/2008)
They use ugly bikes so people are less inclined to steal them. They're probably very heavy and vastly overbuilt too. I think that's how it should be.
I hope this system can get off the ground. I'm always leery about vehicle share programs starting up with small numbers of stations/vehicles.... I keep thinking that some kind of critical mass is needed.
I'll be happy to be wrong (again).
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Derek 10:01PM (4/28/2008)
Kevin, DC is very flat until you get past Georgetown and in the area around Rock Creek Park. Most of it is occupying filled-in tidal flats!
They have these sort of things in European cities like Munich and Vienna. It's a great idea and I hope it takes off here.
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eddy 3:23AM (4/29/2008)
You forgot Amsterdam, the city where all bikes are "public property".
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Tim 9:01AM (4/29/2008)
Wouldn't this be cool if they were electric bikes!
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libloon 9:44AM (4/29/2008)
This is great news because I am sure it means that members of Congress will now be able to "go green" by peddling around D.C. instead of riding around in grossly polluting limos with armor plating.
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Yggdrasilly 12:48PM (4/29/2008)
It's good to know that the folks in Washington, D.C. are finally catching up with us here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
We've had these for about a year now.
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n 1:00PM (4/29/2008)
looks like on the site the max rent time for is 3 hours...but you can just rent another one right afterwards
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