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Bike Sharing: The Newest Mode of Public Transport

by Erik Weber, October 27, 2010, The City Fix via Planetizen

With bike sharing systems popping up all over the world, it’s about time we look critically at the role these systems can play in a city’s urban fabric and transportation system. While bikes have been an integral part of the modal mix in many cities for years, they served a similar purpose to automobiles: exclusively personal mobility. Bike sharing has altered that paradigm, essentially creating a new mode of public transit.

James May, best known for his car-loving contributions to BBC’s Top Gear, professes his love for cycling in his most recent column in the Telegraph. He praises London’s new bike sharing program, Barclays Cycle Hire, for its various merits, but he also laments, among other things:

“[B]y being yoked to the rack system, the bicycle, this ultimate symbol of mobility and freedom for the masses, effectively becomes public transport: it doesn’t leave from precisely where you are and doesn’t arrive at exactly where you want to be. Unless you work as a bicycle rack attendant, the very point of the bicycle is somewhat defeated.”

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