Comments

Hey Tom!

Sounds like a brilliant idea...so, wat if one does not return the bike???? means that he / she gets a cool community bike for 20 kroners????

Posted by K.Sriram at June 1, 2005 11:10 PM

I spent 4 months in Copenhagen on a project a few years ago - fell in love with the place! The Danes are some of the nicest people I have ever come across.

Much more green oriented (wind farms, recycling - no such thing as a drinks can - all reusable bottles)

The cycling thing is also encouraged by the fact that the massive tax on new cars means you will pay a lot more than other countries. Also the traffic laws are heavily weighted to the bike - it seems as if it's always the cyclists right of way!

Copenhagen is also a very walkable/public transport type city (When on the road I rated cities on whether I could avoid a car/taxi from the Hotel to the customer every day)

I recommend a visit!

Posted by PaulH at June 2, 2005 2:04 AM

In Germany, students use web sites to hook up for transportation with strangers. A sort of Craigslist for people who travel alone or dont mind making a few extra bucks by filling the empty space in the car!! A friend of mine on an exchange program uses this 'service' regularly to travel everywhere from her college town to Munich or even Paris. Works cheap and safe (people dont shoot strangers on highways or carry guns around that much I guess!!)

Posted by Hesh at June 2, 2005 2:20 AM

To K.Sriram - it is very difficult to steal the public bikes - because you can't lock it (the wheels are solid - and there are no where on the bike, to place a lock). Also there is a finders fee - so if you bring the bike out of the "zone" (basically in the very center of the city) people will call the bike-company and they will come and get the bike back.

Posted by Trine-Maria Kristensen at June 2, 2005 2:51 AM

It seems like all of the Scandinavians take a much greener approach to life and somehow they make it work!

I spent some time in Stockholm and loved bicycling everywhere. When walking I ran a greater risk of being run down by a bicycle than a car. I haven't been to Denmark, but all of the Danes I've done business with have been nice people. My favorite Vikings are the Norwegians for their fjords and zany sense of humor. Helsinki on the other hand is sort of strange, but definitely worth seeing.

Posted by Noel Guinane at June 2, 2005 3:11 AM

To Trine-Maria Kristensen

Thanx a bunch for that one!

Posted by K.Sriram at June 2, 2005 4:19 AM

Santa Fe and Albuquerque here in New Mexico [population 1.9 Million] tend to have bike lanes everywhere - and the weather is conducive to biking.

Portland and much of Oregon is also into the bike scene. So much of Scandinavian and European countries are more easlily DESIGNABLE for quick commutes - the USA seems to be designed for le culture de car.

Posted by Sean at June 2, 2005 4:50 AM

Do the villages also have bicycles, or are they just found in Copenhagen??

Posted by Andy Skinstad at June 2, 2005 8:25 AM

Andy, good question. I don't know. Do any of our Danish readers know? But my guess is not, since there are more than 2 bikes per person in the country, I assume most people in the villages have their own bikes.

Posted by Erik Hansen at June 2, 2005 8:48 AM

I work for a Danish company in the US and have lots of collegues there.

Denmark has a 200% sales tax on all cars as well the same high gas prices as the rest of Europe.

This has led them to adopt the same efficient long distance transport as the rest of Europe (trains) and efficient short distance transport (bikes) as well.

If we want to create outcomes in the US (more bike riding), then we need to create the same pain points (high prices).

As creative an idea as free bikes are, it's a very creative distraction and not a creative solution to a problem not completly in the forefront of the American conscience.

Posted by Jim Kent at June 2, 2005 8:52 AM

Denmark in Colorado?! Fort Collins, Colorado (a silver medal winner in the League of American Bicyclists "bicycle friendly communities program") has community bikes in its Freewheels program. Thirty businesses and fifteen to twenty city, county and university offices have free "yellow bikes" available to their staff for running errands in downtown Fort Collins. This avoids car trips for short errands to other businesses or government offices that are too far away to walk to. Loren, an intern with the city and the "Freewheels guy" comes around once every couple of weeks to check on the bikes, record their mileage and perform routine maintenance.

It's a great program in danger of extinction as the city reexamines its spending in view of recent budget crunches. Let's hope we keep it. At ExperiencePlus! (a bicycle and walking tour company) we use it all the time to go to the bank and the post office. We'd hate to see it disappear!

Posted by Rick Price at June 2, 2005 9:27 AM

Rick, that's very cool. As for keeping freewheels, what about ads on the bikes? i don't know any of the details of the copenhagen program, but the wheels of the bikes are solid, providing a place for ads. seems to me one of the red bikes i saw there was sporting the coca cola logo on the wheels. if you search "urban bicycles copenhagen" or something similar you'll find a fair amount of info on the danish program. might be some ideas there.

Posted by Erik Hansen at June 2, 2005 9:52 AM

1. Denmark is one of the most civilized places on earth. I love going there.

2. Frankfort, Germany also has a cool public bike program. You somehow pay (with a credit card or cell phone or something else - I can't remember) and get charged for the time you use it. You just leave it where you are when you are done, and someone else picks it up from there.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at June 2, 2005 7:09 PM

The City Bikes has just this spring been introduced to Aarhus, also in Denmark ( population ca. 250.000 ). There has been problems of people vandalising some bikes. Probably happens in late night hours when some people get drunk ... and there has also been problems because some people don't care to bring the bikes back.

I have used the bikes myself a couple of times. And it's a great idea. And it must be real nice if you are a turist !

Posted by Jørn Buch Larsen at June 2, 2005 8:33 PM

This may be a nerd-like question, but--what about helmets? How does that work or do they opt out of head protection?

Posted by Pam Brill at June 2, 2005 9:46 PM

A great health promotion activity too Erik.

Sounds a fantastic scheme - I wish we had something similar in every town in England.

Exercise is great for folks (yes it really is!!)and this is an example of the community helping itself with local government support.

Surely it is better to work to prevent your first heart attacks than spend your time wondering why you had it! :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 3, 2005 3:24 AM

As the proportion of bikes per capita in DK, the City Bikes are mostly targeted at tourists who could get frustrated not having one when getting there as they see all the Danes biking around them ! :)
It's also worth noting that daily biking despite reducing traffic congestion and pollution plays a positive role on people health on the long range and consequently, reduces financial burden on welfare state.

A recent interesting initiative has been taken by the city of Lyons in France.
They made available 200O bikes which one can rent from a 200 strategic places around the city (big metro station, central squares, train stations etc).
One first needs to buy a special credit card that gives access to the bike. The cost is about 0,5€ / hour.

The cost has been covered by the JC Decaux advertisement company who won a bid for the public bus shelters. Financing the initiative was part of the deal but in exchange the company gets the revenues generated by the rent.

The challenge is different in France than in DK as authorities need to incitate people to bike more.

Posted by Jacques-Julien at June 3, 2005 4:00 AM

Pam, I didn't see anyone wearing helmets. it took me a while to figure out what was different about the bicyclists there. everyone in the u.s. now wears a helmet, but in denmark, no head protection. (i biked across the country 20 years ago without a helmet, but now i don't bike down the street without strapping one on.) i'm curious as to the incidence of head injuries in denmark.

Posted by Erik Hansen at June 3, 2005 7:56 AM

Hi,

Luckily its not there where i live ( excuse for not mentioning the name of my place ), it would have been a great loss for the government or the community which runs it because people will take the bike and they will not pay for it.

Sri ram i think the figures describe that they dont loose even a single bike ( 12 million for a population of 5.4 million ) even if some one does its not gonna effect since they have 2.22 bike for every individual.

Regards
Kiran Jain

Posted by Kiran Jain at June 3, 2005 8:13 AM

Less Helmets? Erik/Pam - perhaps the Danes feel safer on their roads......?!? (Not that I condone the none wearing of helmets of course)

Posted by PaulH at June 3, 2005 8:30 AM

helmets.
as i see it: helmets can reduce the risk of head injuries.
but if you ride in the city (not in the mountains) head injuries can in most of the cases only come from a crash with a car. i should suppose that it is very unlikely that you can hurt your head when falling of your bike otherwise - exception: heart-attack or fainting.

countries with a bicycling tradition - holland, germany, denmark etc. do hold much less a threat for cyclists, because the car drivers are used to bicycle traffic. plus there are dedicated bike-lanes etc, etc...

but, not all of europe is like this. spain for example is quite the opposite. bikes are still aliens in most spanish cities - especially madrid. and they are aliens to spanish car drivers.
spanish research showed, that even the wearing of a helmet could not reduce serious head injuries significantly. - this fact is interpreted as: cyclists who wear helmets feel saver and behave carelessly. - well..

personally i see it quite differently: with the spanish urban traffic culture i would not recommend anyone to try cycling there. with or without a helmet...

Posted by jens at June 3, 2005 9:10 AM

Bicycling is seen as a bare essential in the Netherlands, where I live. And families quite often have several bikes that they use for different activities

One family I know - just a husband and wife - no kids has this collection

For the husband:
1 bike to ride in the city (an old bike)
1 racing bike to well race in the summer
1 mountain bike to mountainbike throughout the year

For the wife:
1 bike to ride in the city (new, since she got theft insurance on the bike)
1 mountain bike to mountainbike throughout the year.

Bike theft insurance is definitely recommended for folks who have newer bikes, wherever they live in the Netherlands. and of course no matter what the bike, always have 2 locks, that lock the wheels to the rest of the bike.. Wheels are stolen more often than bikes..

hahaha

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at June 5, 2005 8:08 AM

Hi Arun,

If i say that people in my place rob the lock of the battery box, and not the bike. This has happend to me last month, i was surprised to see the lock missing and the battery being there as it is.

Regards
Kiran Jain

Posted by Kiran at June 6, 2005 6:37 AM

Very nice concept. I wish such a thing could happen in the India's IT captital - Bangalore. Its roads are bursting at all seems these days.

Posted by Ashish Shukla at June 9, 2005 8:35 AM

Hi

Just a bit of extra information on the city bikes in Denmark. This City bikes are spreading and are now also found in other major cities in Denmark, like the second larges city Ã…rhus.

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And I belive that the idea for City bikes are original from Holland, but I am not a 100% sure about it.

.Nicki

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Posted by Nicki Brøchner at June 12, 2005 2:46 PM