Lyon was the first city where i saw rental bikes actually being used a ton. It is a pretty hilly city, not sure how people got back up the hills, but they certainly loved to use the bikes to ride downhill into the center.
Lyon was actually one of if not the first city to offer such service, in 2007. It was financed by an advertising company in exchange for the concession for managing public displays.
2007 sounds about right. I remember them being free to use for … 20 minutes or something, is that still the case? I could not try myself then because it required a french debit card iirc, which i did not have.
I’ve heard from a local that they are constantly having to transport the bikes uphill again because nobody takes them that direction. Still better than cars, but not ideal.
There are 2 hills, the rest is flat. And one of them is not really populated. Having trucks move bikes between station is pretty standard to ensure correct distribution of bikes, hills notwithstanding.
Yeah, i can’t imagine that anybody involved in the set up of the system was under the illusion that people would ride these heavy ass single speed (?) bikes up those hills.
Lyon was the first city where i saw rental bikes actually being used a ton. It is a pretty hilly city, not sure how people got back up the hills, but they certainly loved to use the bikes to ride downhill into the center.
edit: about 20 years ago
Lyon was actually one of if not the first city to offer such service, in 2007. It was financed by an advertising company in exchange for the concession for managing public displays.
2007 sounds about right. I remember them being free to use for … 20 minutes or something, is that still the case? I could not try myself then because it required a french debit card iirc, which i did not have.
I haven’t used them since about that time, I can’t say what the prices are now.
I’ve heard from a local that they are constantly having to transport the bikes uphill again because nobody takes them that direction. Still better than cars, but not ideal.
There are 2 hills, the rest is flat. And one of them is not really populated. Having trucks move bikes between station is pretty standard to ensure correct distribution of bikes, hills notwithstanding.
Yeah, i can’t imagine that anybody involved in the set up of the system was under the illusion that people would ride these heavy ass single speed (?) bikes up those hills.