Monday, September 22, 2008

Bike-share program in the works

According to the Ottawa Citizen, the cities of Ottawa, Gatineau, and the National Capital Commission (NCC) are looking into a bicycle-sharing program that would allow users to rent bikes and return them when they reach their destination. The idea is similar to those already existing in Paris and Lyon, which have been discussed previously on this blog. A quote from Marie Lemay, the chief executive officer of the NCC, from the Citizen story:

"There will be about 400 bikes in Montreal next spring and I noticed when I was in Washington, D.C., for three days that they have them there. The idea is to replace cars when you move from one place to another."

Ms. Lemay said commuters could swipe user cards to pick up bicycles at a network of stations and leave the bikes at the station closest to their destination. The bikes would probably be free for a short period, but cost money afterward to encourage commuters to use them briefly instead of renting them for a day or more.

2 comments:

mwasser said...

I really hope they implement this system! I was on exchange in Lyon last year and I thought it was a great thing, especially for students.

Anonymous said...

While this comment isn't as relevant to commuters, I would like to note how useful a bike-share programme can be for a certain demographic of tourists. While hostelling in Vienna last year, I took advantage of their similar bike programme, and found it extremely efficient.