In the September issue of Dwell we noticed a blurb about Cyclocity, a European bike-sharing service sponsored by international advertising firm JC Decaux. Our first thought was, "That's a cool idea," and our second thought was, "Hey, Chicago has that." Well, sort of.
We've got the Cycle Center at Millennium Park, where people can rent anything from tandems to beach cruisers by the hour, the day, or the week. It's a good start, but we'd love to see something like Cyclocity happen in the city. You'd pay a minimal fee, pick up a bike at a subway stop, and drop it off at another "park n' ride" location. For details on the Cyclocity program, click here.
this is my first summer in chicago. one of my first thoughts was a program just like this. i liked the program so much that i even though about seriously starting to search for investors and whatnot. i asked a lot of people for their thoughts it and the whole program just keeps getting shut down. the most common response was the liability issue. what if someone gets hurt on one of your bikes?
i think this type of program could either work magnificently or fail miserably. even if the program were to work, how long would it take for people to get used to it?
is anyone else as interested in this as me? anyone thinking about pursuing this more than a what if conversation on a blog?
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Mig: If you're looking for more information on how to start a program like this, you might contact the Center for Neighborhood Technology: http://www.cnt.org/
They're a non-profit group that runs the I-Go car sharing program (http://www.igocars.org/), and their membership/usage fees cover insurance for drivers.
For more on I-Go and CNT from Apartment Therapy, click here:
http://chicago.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/green-ideas/green-tip-igo-car-sharing-024233
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