Urban bike-sharing is coming to North America
Do you remember that during my last trip to Paris, I had featured the Vélib bike-sharing system that was sweeping Paris by storm and making being green and fit so chic?
You can read my original post here: Parisians are cycling instead of driving!
Well Montreal is next in line to try to get more of its citizens to bike instead of driving!
Bixi is the new high-tech public bike system developed for the city of Montreal!
Bixi’s bike sharing principles is pretty much the same as Vélib’s in Paris (in fact Barcelona (Spain) and Lyon (France) also have their own bike sharing system in place) – you take a bike from a stand, ride it to where you want to go, and then drop it at another stand when you’re done!
To make the concept even more attractive to users, bikes will be equipped with RFID tags so that users can track availability online — real-time information is beamed to the web from the system’s solar-powered bike stands … how cool is that?
Bixi offers yearly, monthly and by the day plans. You’ll pay a membership fee of $78 CAD for one year, $24 for one month and only $5 for one day. Not only are these fees very recession-proof, but you also get to ride for the first half hour of every trip for free! You’ll pay $12 per hour for extended periods of use.
Not only is this a super-green idea, it’s excellent to get Montrealers and visitors to Montreal in great shape, it’s also a great alternative to the monthly public transportation pass during the spring and summer months.
Bixi’s full launch is scheduled for April 2009, when 3,000 bikes will be installed in 300 locations across Montreal.
Since Montreal is NOT the place where you want to be riding a bike in January because of their brutal winters, the convenient Bixi system can only be enjoyed from April to November.
Who knows, maybe we’ll soon see Bixi bikes in the rest of Canada and maybe this will make its way to America. I’m sure that U.S. President Obama would agree that this is a green solution that would cut back on oil-dependency and many doctors would welcome the idea of getting more Americans more active to help them lose weight!
If you are a Montreal reader or if you are heading to Montreal for the summer, this might be a great way to visit the city while getting a good workout at the same time!
You’ll find more information on Bixi bikes here: Bixi
First photo by josef.stuefer
Second photo brom Bixi’s web site
Tags: Beauty Destinations
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