Bike Sharing Systems Around the World

http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20110909-travelwise-bike-sharing-around-the-world

A published BBC article from September 9th that highlights bike sharing systems around the world.

• There is one featured bike sharing system in the US - In Washington, DC.
• I have seen the BSS in London and Paris.  I was more hesitant to ride in Paris and London due to the amount of traffic and lack of bike lanes on busy streets.
• I have used the BSS in Hangzhou to much satisfaction.  Super cheap for Americans with the exchange rate in our favor and very user friendly with lots of bike stations around town.  Even with signs in different languages, there were designated bike lanes on the very busy streets to make bikers feel comfortable.
• Chinese would use these bikes to get to work or around town.  Notice the everyday clothing you see them wearing as opposed to workout gear you often seen in typical American cyclists (with the exception of Austin, TX :P)
• There are enough bikes at each station for biking to be a reliable means of transportation to and from work.  I never noticed any of the bike stations being completely empty.  In fact, there was one case where the 3 of us could not find a place for all of our bikes at the same station, and had to walk a couple of blocks to the next station to return a bike.
• It seemed like if you were to have your own bike, you would have an electric bike or motorcycle/moped instead of a 'normal' human powered bike.

Biking around town - Baskets make it easy to carry goods/run errands

Bike Station 

Infrastructure for Bikers on the Road

Separate Bike and Car Lanes

PS - that look was common in China... female caucasian tourist!!

Video of Bike Riding... After the initial deposit to rent the bike, the bike rental was free for the first hour.  You can hear Luke refer to switching the bikes out every hour and our scheme to get away with a very, very inexpensive form of entertainment for the day.