Bike sharing: coming to the US?
Here in Austin we have a car sharing program, for people who can't afford, or just don't want a vehicle of their own. You pay a small fee, use the car when you need it, and return it when you're done. It's a great concept.
Some cities make this idea even greener by doing it with bikes. While it's more popular in European cities like Paris -- where there are 20,000 bikes at over 1,000 different stations -- it seems the idea is about to catch on in the US.
San Francisco looks like it could be the first major US city to start a bike sharing program, and, with any luck, it won't be long before other urban areas follow suit. Besides the obvious environmental benefits of having your citizens ditch their cars for human-powered transportation, the best part about this initiative is that's so cheap. Instead of purchasing the bikes and installing the stations themselves, the city contracts with the company that advertises on transit shelters, and they do the work -- making the initiative virtually cost-free for taxpayers.
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