Thursday, July 31, 2008

Boston Bike Sharing

Boston is considering its very own European-style bike sharing program. For those who are not familiar with idea of Bike-Sharing, it all the rage in Paris with a program called VĂ©lib’s. It's seems to be almost like a Zip-Car option for bicycles.

Wow! What an interesting idea, paying per use bicycles. It's not the expensive, so everyone can afford them and with the rising costs of gas, I can see how it would be popular in Boston. To encourage people to return bikes quickly, rental rates rise the longer the bikes are out.


In Paris, for instance, renting a bike will be free for the first 30 minutes, $1.30 for the next 30 minutes. A two-hour bike rental will set you about $9.10, a two hour drive on the highway with an average four-door sedan would cost you around $20.00 with today's gas prices. That's DOUBLE the price, so you will be saving lots of mula and of course have the added benefit of getting yourself in shape!

I do realize that buying a bike would be probably cheaper overall then renting one over a period of time, but for those who don't own one nor have the necessary funds up front to buy a bicycle it's a great idea.

Related Posts: Biking to Work in Boston - My first time; Bikes Not Bombs Biking in place gets the homeless far

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.metaefficient.com/

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