You’re hip, cool and trendy. You’ve got that great loft in the most happening part of town. The city is hopping, the rhythm’s pumping, it’s Friday night and you’ve got places to go and people to meet.
The arena traffic is filling the street. There’s no way you’re giving up your parking space and fighting that, not tonight. But you’ve got to refill that Valtrex prescription before your friends show up. You’ll take City Bike.
Perfect for quick trips and avoiding congestion, City Bike offers convenient use of strategically positioned bicycles to anyone needing immediate and quick transportation. Helsinki has such a program, with 26 locations throughout the city. For a mere €2 refundable fee, you unlock a bike, head out, accomplish your task, and return the bicycle to any stand.
Amsterdam has a similar program targeted for tourists and Columbus is ready for it, be it for tourists or locals. When your parents visit, hide the Valtrex and show mom how easy it is to enjoy Columbus from the seat of City Bike. She’ll wonder how you got so smart.
photography by Mika Lappalainen
Columbus is certainly ready for it but is it coming? That would be unbelievable. I wish Columbus streets were a bit more tolerant of bicycles though. When I ride myself, I don’t mind the streets, but when my daughter’s on the back, I’m confined to sidewalks. Pretty dangerous out there at times.
In some major cities, they run a “similar” (similar meaning the same except Americanized) form of this called Zipcar. There are cars strategically placed around the city and you can rent them for hours or days and take them around. The great thing about this is in a city with viable public transit, there is absolutely no need for a car ever because this can do what you need it to do when the public transit can’t (i.e. moving or going somewhere outside of the covered area).
I think every city is ready for Zipcar. Not quite as environmentally friendly as City Bike though.
Some local anarchists started one of these programs in Kingston when I lived there, Kingston Yellow Bike Action:
http://kingston.cioc.ca/details.asp?RSN=15027&Number=3
Appears it’s still functioning after ~ 10 years.