Bike-sharing programs have lately come to Chicago (IL) and London (UK), and both systems have drawn inspiration (and warning) from Paris. Here are some highlights:
Chicago rolled out a demonstration program last week, with bicycles available in six downtown locations. B-cycle, the national bike-sharing company, is operating the program through local partner Bike And Roll. “We’ve been working for many years to lessen traffic by offering alternatives to using the automobile,” said Mayor Richard M. Daley in a statement. “My goal is to make Chicago the most bicycle-friendly city in the United States.” In a Q&A segment in the Chicago Tribune, Bike and Roll founder Josh Squire described the combination of high-tech and low-tech solutions to fight potential vandalism: First, the bicycles are equipped with GPS systems and, second, the bikes are gray (or pewter, as Squire corrected the reporter), a utilitarian color that makes them less attractive to thieves.
London is also worried about theft. As the city launched its bike-sharing program, Transport for London is funding a team from Scotland Yard to prevent the kind of problems that plagued the Paris program. According to The Telegraph, half of the French bicycles disappeared within 18 months: “Some Parisian bikes turned up in north Africa and eastern Europe, others were found hanging from lampposts or floating in the Seine.” Bicycle theft has increased in London, in part because of the demand for aluminum, with 23,000 stolen last year. So, like Chicago, TfL is using a combination of high-tech and low-tech approaches to combat crime: Rental locations are monitored by closed-circuit television, locks are more secure, and the bikes themselves are designed to be clunky rather than fashionable. “They are not designed to be sleek high speed machines,” said a TfL spokesman. “They are robust and do the job.”
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