Awesome News: America Catching On to the Bike-Sharing Coolness

America lags behind Europe in so many ways, and bicycle use is just one. But now Washington DC is starting a bike-sharing program, allowing people to rent out bicycles whenever they want with the swipe of a membership card.

The New York Times has it:

A new public-private venture called SmartBike DC will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in central locations in the city. The automated program, which district officials say is the first of its kind in the nation, will operate in a similar fashion to car-sharing programs like Zipcar.

The district has teamed up with an advertiser, Clear Channel Outdoor, to put the bikes on the streets.

“There’s a lot of stress on our transit systems currently,” said Jim Sebastian, who manages bicycle and pedestrian programs for Washington’s Transportation Department. Offering another option, Mr. Sebastian said, “will help us reduce congestion and pollution,” as well as parking problems.

Rentable bicycles are a great transportation option for college students, getting them to and from important destinations like school, their dorms or apartments and the dive bar down the street that doesn’t check ID’s. While you can still get ticketed for riding a bicycle drunk in some states (a B.U.I.?), it’s definitely a safer route home than getting in the car, even if you do wake up to find asphalt and bike tire tread marks on your face the next day.

Bicycles for rent is already a big trend in cities like Amsterdam, Paris and Florence. When I was in college, I would read longingly about an art student exchange program in the latter city and the romantic descriptions of grabbing a bicycle off a public rack downtown to grab lunch from the corner market and enjoy a picnic on the steps of the Uffizi. Of course, that was before I actually visited Florence and realized people drive like insane sign-ignoring speed demons. At least in America, you’re not as likely to be clipped in the ass by an impossibly tiny car that goes by so fast you can barely catch a glimpse of it.

Link [New York Times]
Photo credit: Flickr user ark

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