Submitted by admin on Thu, 2006-12-21 01:55.
Copenhagen has a free bike scheme called City Bikes. Riders pay a refundable deposit at one of 100 special bike racks and have unlimited use of a bike within a specified area. The scheme is funded by commercial sponsors. In return, the bikes carry advertisements, which appear on the bike frame and the solid-disk type wheels. Helsinki has a similar scheme using bicycles available at over 26 stands for a €2 deposit which is refundable at any other stand.
The advertising company JCDecaux has launched its "Cyclocity" programs in Lyon, Córdoba and Vienna. Here hundreds of bikes are made available for hire from special, widely-dispersed bicycle racks. Payment for using the bikes is done with special smart cards.
In some German cities, the national rail company Deutsche Bahn offers a convenient bike rental service: "Call a Bike". The "Call a Bike" principle is very simple, the bikes are locked electronically and again left in the open at widely distributed locations. A potential user phones an operator with the number of the bike he or she wishes to use. The operator confirms the customers account details and unlocks the bicycle remotely. If desired, billing can be done directly to the users mobile phone account.
In Charleston, WV, a joint ministry of St. John's Episcopal Church, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Mountain State Wheelers bicycle club is 'Spokes4Folks', which collects used bicycles, refurbishes them, and then distributes them to clients at the Manna Meals Soup Kitchen two or three times per year. They are considering expanding their services to include encouragement of bicycle-based entrepreneuership and bicycle-related youth development services.
This is absolutely right!!!