London Offers 21st Century Bike Share with Barclay's Cycle Hire

Not to be outdone by Paris with its Velib bike share program, London Transport opened up an automated bike share program on July 30, 2010 with 5,000 bicycles at 315 docking stations.  Like most modern bike share programs, the "scheme" (as the Brits call it) is designed for short hops in the City of London.

According to Wikipedia, the bikes are called "Boris bikes" for Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London at the time.

The sponsor of the program is Barclay's financial services who put up something on the order of 25 million UK pounds to finance the program.   

Even more interestingly, on February 27, 2011 Boris Johnson is quoted in the Bloombergnews.com as saying that Barclay's should contribute another 25 million pounds to double their investment.  According to Bloomberg Johnson said he wants to see more of the money being paid in bonuses in the financial sector shared with other Londoners, both through donations from highly paid employees and corporate sponsorship for programs such as this.  As Johnson noted, "these people have received substantial sums of money from the tax payer to keep the whole banking industry afloat.”

Now that's a new spin on financing public bike share programs!

Barclay's Cycle Hire works like the Paris program.  You can buy a one day, one week or annual membership.  Using the bike is free for the first 30 minutes then costs 1 pound for an hour, 4 pounds for 90 minutes and so on. 

For complete details of Barclay's Cycle Hire visit their web site. 

Springtime in Paris - a Weekend Bicycle Tour

Ok, this isn't a bicycle tour in the real sense of the word, but it would be hard to beat a low-cost, do-it-yourself weekend in Paris with bicycles like this one!

Get yourself to Paris, check in to a centrally located hotel, and make use of the Velo Libre bike-share network for your transportation. The hotel listed on this link, Hotel Andrea Rivoli, has a Velib' station right outside the door!

For a photo essay on the Paris Velib' program, visit our Flickr pages. This little photo essay shows you how the program works.

Here's a detailed description of how the Velo Libre program works.

And this link hooks you up with the official Velib' web site in English.

Giant Bicycles to Offer Bicycle Rentals in Taipei City

Giant Manufacturing Co, the world's largest manufacturer of bicycles will set up eleven rental points with a total of 500 rental bikes in the heart of Taipei City. This follows on the announcement of the introduction of 4,500 bicycles in Kaohsiung City along that city's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) routes by May for use by citizens in a massive bike sharing program. Read more about it here.

So if you are traveling to Taiwan there is not need to forgo your daily bike ride!

For the news announcement about Giant in Taipei City click here.

Bike Sharing Blog Gathers Info on Bike Sharing Around the World

The Bike-sharing Blog provides information on the emerging public transportation mode of bike-sharing. The Blog is provided by MetroBike, LLC , based in Washington, D.C., USA. Visit the blog here by clicking here.

At right is a photo of the Bike Library in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Cafes in Tel Aviv, Israel Offer Free Bicycles

Visiting Tel Aviv on a bus tour? Take an afternoon to enjoy the bike share program in these cafes!

Hotels that Include Bicycles - What Bicycle Would you Like with that Room?

Here's an update from the NY Times on hotels in Europe that offer bikes. The article, by Jane Margolies was published May 3, 2009 in the electronic edition.

Remember that innovative hotel that offered you a non-smoking room years ago? Well, now you can ask for a bicycle with your room!

Hilary Howard reported in the NY Times Dec. 21, 2008 that some hotels and hotel chains now offer the option of a bicycle along with the room.

Here are just a few (please let us know if you find others!)

The Bowery in NY City
The Gansevoort South in Miami
The James in Chicago
The Element in Lexington, MA
And according to Howard, all future Element Hotels will include free bikes!

Of course, this is nothing new for us here in Fort Collins, Colorado as the Armstrong Hotel has been offering crusier bikes to its guests for several years now.

The Broadmoor, in Colorado Springs doesn't provide free bikes but you can rent them.

In Portland, OR: Hotel Jupiter will rent you a bike for a nominal $10 for 4 hours and $20 for 12 hours. Just give them a call: 503-230-9200 or drop in to their web site at www.jupiterhotel.com.

Near Atlanta, GA: Callaway Gardens offers bicycles for rent on their grounds.

In Europe:

Germany: Berlin - Hotel Gates
Belgium: Brugges - several hotels offer bicycles

We're working on building this list so please post a comment if you find hotels that provide free bikes or rental bikes at a nominal cost.