Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Bicycles

My friend Paul, in England, sent me this link http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7a562fd6-7766-11e0-824c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Lefvo4HF  It's about the popularity of a new bicycle hiring scheme they are running in London.  For a couple of years now they have developed the hiring of bicycles from racks to take to other racks all over the city.  (Apparantly you never have to go more than 400 yards to find one) Basically, you pay a fee - about $100 a year and then $10 for each trip of over half an hour - I think less than that  its at no extra cost.
There are 5,500 bikes in the scheme and they make a collected 24,000 trips each day.
The bikes are very distinctive and heavy - about 50 pounds each and colored blue and grey.  So far they have only had ten stolen. 
I wonder if this idea will come to any American cities - I think you can rule out San Francisco!

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