Best bike-sharing cities in the world (USA News)

The point when Citi Bike moved onto the lanes of New York this Memorial Day, it was treated as a national occasion and even global media paid heed.

Ahead of time of the launch, one blog entry on Le Monde's site crowed, "Vélib' to overcome America." (Vélib' is Paris' notorious bicycle offer.)

The United States may be a little late to the diversion, however the business of European-style bicycle offering isn't that old to start to. In a 2003 paper for Transportation Quarterly, bicycle offer master Paul Demaio, then a transportation organizer for Alexandria, Va., distinguished three eras of open utilization two wheeler plans, about-facing to 1968 in Amsterdam with the utilization of free supposed "White Bikes." (That system broken down insid days.)
The following major improvement was in Copenhagen, which presented a coin-worked framework in 1995 called Bycyklen, or "City Bike." For 17 years, these cycles zoomed through the roads of Denmark's capital until the project was closed down toward the end of last year its getting an overhaul to third era engineering.

Supported by media mammoth Clear Channel, the French city of Rennes carried the following era of cycle impart gadgetry to the planet in 1998 by reinstating coin operation with card access and electronic booths. From that point the engineering has advanced, getting GPS and continuous following along the way, and has spread all through Western Europe—and the planet.

Consistent with the Bike Sharing World Map, administered by Demaio and Russell Meddin of Bike Share Philadelphia, there are 553 cycle impart programs in operation worldwide and an alternate 193 in arranging or under development.

Furthermore they're not just in Europe and North America.

The worldwide pioneer in cycle offering, as measured by the amount of two wheeler, is China. Consistent with information gathered by the Earth Policy Institute, 20 of the 25 biggest two wheeler impart projects are Chinese. Its biggest one, in the city of Wuhan, has double the amount of cycles as all of France's imparts com'
In spite of the fact that the vast majority of the frameworks offer numerous aspects two wheeler with low burglary quality, electronic docking stations, layered installment scales—diverse urban areas are attempting distinctive approaches to make two wheeler offering work.

With an eye towards highlighting the reach and scale of the present day cycle offer blast, we picked 16 of the planet's champion programs and chose to perceive how they stack up against one another.

The most significant element in our rankings wasn't the measure of a project essentially, yet its size measured against the city's populace. For instance, Mexico City's 4,000 two wheeler may give it the third biggest framework in North America, yet that is in a city of 8.9 million—over 2,000 individuals for every cycle!

This proportion turns into a stand-in for variables that are harder to quantify: How "open" is the framework to all who may need to utilize it, and how fundamental right to the life of the city (or nation, as the case may be)?

We additionally recognized four different classifications: moderateness, ubiquity, functionality/convenience, and the city's bicycle neighborliness. We helpfully moved those into a score—giving unique weight to individuals for every cycle and wound up with some unforeseen resul
1. Hangzhou, China
1. Hangzhou, ChinaLaunched: 2008Size: 2,965 stations / 69,750 bikesPrice: $32.61 deposit + time chargeTake a look at this city of 6.2 million near Shanghai, and you'll see what just may be the best bike share in the world. Although now second on the planet (and China) by size, the Hangzhou Public Bicycle system is one of the densest shares, and probably the most extensively used one, anywhere, largely because of its integration into public transit: a single card grants access to subway, bus, ferry, taxi and bike share. Residents and tourists alike can put down a deposit of 200 Chinese Yuan (about $33) and ride for an hour for free in this scenic city on the Yangtze Delta. Each additional hour is the equivalent of only $0.15—one reason why riders put in a quarter-million rides a day. It was also the first new-generation bike share in China and is poised to once again become the world's biggest. By 2020 it's projected to have 175,000 bikes.

2. Paris

Launched: 2007Size: 1,751 stations / 23,900 bikesPrice: $38.52 per year / $2.26 per dayParis's Vélib' is the star of the bike share world. Launched Bastille Day weekend in 2007, it was the most ambitious program of its kind at the time and still remains the world's largest outside of China. Cheap by American standards, you can zip around Paris on a €1.70 day pass—the first half hour of each trip is free. Because Vélib's network blankets the entire city with an average of 50 stations per square mile, it's a favorite of both locals and tourists, to the tune of 110,000 trips a day. This is what we mean by "integral to the life of the city."

3. Wuhan, China

Launched: 2009Size: 1,318 stations / approx. 90,000 bikes (as of April, 2012)Price: freeWhile Europe gets most of the credit for bringing bike sharing into the 21st century, China is the world leader—at least by the numbers. This central Chinese city of 6.4 million has the world's largest bike share scheme by a sight: if official figures are to be believed, it has roughly twice the number of bikes as all of France's shares combined, according to data collected by the Earth Policy Institute. And not only are there more than enough bikes to go around for its residents only bike share—it has the lowest resident-to-bike ratio on our list—it's free.

4. Changwon, South Korea

Launched: 2010Size: 230 stations / 4,600 bikesPrice: $8 per year / $1 per dayChina's not the only Asian country with the bike share bug. This South Korean city rolled out its NUBIJA program—short for Nearby Useful Bike, Interesting Joyful Attraction—as part of an initiative to be one of South Korea's greenest cities. Residents have taken to NUBIJA and the city's color-coded bike lanes in droves, and the system's about to get even more high-tech: Changwon plans to add smartphone chargers to the bikes so riders' pedal strokes can do double duty. NUBIJA is also one step away from free: about $18 for an annual subscription and less than a dollar for a day pass—and the first two hours of riding cost nothing.

5. Lyon, France

Launched: 2005Size: 345 stations / approx. 4,000 bikesPrice: $33.20 per year / $1.99 per dayBefore Paris rolled out its world-famous share in 2007, France's second city, Lyon, set the stage with Vélo'v, the first truly modern system with smart cards, GPS tracking and high-tech kiosks. It followed a price structure introduced by the city of Rennes, which pioneered a smaller, less advanced system in 1998: the first 30 minutes are free for everyone, and subscribers pay reduced rates for half-hour increments thereafter. Lyon's success with this ad-supported system heralded the explosive growth of urban bike sharing and became a model for other European cities. To this day it is also one of the continent's most well-used, best-run systems.

6. Barcelona

Launched: 2007Size: 420 stations / 6,000 bikesPrice: $61.93 per yearBarcelona's Bicing program vaulted Spain into the bike share business in a big way. This coastal Catalan city's program took off like wildfire on wheels, quadrupling in size in one year and inspiring copycat schemes all over the country. Today, Spain has 132 bike shares, the most in the world. While it's one of the world's most respected and popular shares, Bicing is only open to residents—tourists are strictly prohibited—and it doesn't have short-term subscriptions.
 
7. Montreal

Launched: 2009Size: 450 stations / 5,120 bikesPrice: $81.02 per year / $6.87 per dayMontreal's seasonal Bixi network may sound puny next to the big ones in China and Paris, but prior to Citi Bike's debut, it was the largest in North America—and also the first to gain traction. Bixi's modular technology proved to be such a hit that it's now used in Boston, London, Washington, D.C. and, yes, New York. The best share on the continent (okay, among the ones we ranked), Bixi is only held back by not covering more than a small portion of this beautiful, bike-loving city.

8. Tel Aviv

Launched: 2011Size: 171 stations / approx. 2,000 bikesPrice: $77.27 per year / $4.69 per dayMaybe it's the agreeable Mediterranean weather and urban seaside cool of Tel Aviv that made it the location of the Middle East's first, and largest, major bike share, Tel-O-Fun. According to first-year stats released by Tel-O-Fun's parent company, FSM, this Israeli city's experiment has been successful in two ways: on weekdays commuters use the bikes to beat downtown traffic, and on weekends tourists use them to explore Tel Aviv-Yafo's famous boardwalk—now with bike lanes.

9. Brussels

Launched: 2009Size: 305 stations / 3,700 bikesPrice: $42.65 per year / $2.13 per dayYou'd think the success of a public bike program would be a given in this semi-official capital of the E.U., but the first attempt, called Cyclocity, was a flop because it had too few stations and lacked public input. Enter the online activist. Rebooted as Villo! In 2009, the new share now has a public watchdog, the citizen-run website Where's My Villo?, which tracks data on bike and docking availability, and has successfully pressured the operator, the advertising firm JCDecaux, to continuously improve the system. This hilly city's share understandably sees lower ridership than its French cousins, but Villo! is testing out a solution: extra free time for uphill trips.

10. Warsaw

Launched: 2012Size: 125 stations / 2,500 bikesPrice: $3.13 initial fee + extra time after 20 minutesLast year Poland's capital propelled Eastern Europe into the bike sharing big leagues with the introduction of Veturilo. Unlike many other bike shares, there's no tiered membership system, and a one-time fee, equivalent to about $3, grants anyone access to the low-cost system—after sign-up, the first two hours cost just over one U.S. dollar, allowing tourists to explore this historic city on the cheap and locals to use Veturilo bikes for recreation. Compared to other large bike shares, though, Veturilo is not terribly well used, likely due to Warsaw's relative lack of bike culture and its fledgling, but not yet built-up, cycling infrastructure.

11. Washington, D.C. & Northern Virginia

Launched: 2010Size: 231 stations / 1,850 bikesPrice: $75 per yearCapital Bikeshare in the D.C. metro area wasn't the nation's first successful go at a modern Euro-style system—Denver and Minneapolis beat it to the punch by a few months—but it has been something of a test case for a bike-wary U.S. (D.C.'s earlier share, SmartBike DC, was North America's first failed attempt.) With stations across state lines in Washington proper and Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, Capital Bikeshare proved that such a system could work here. Users have logged millions of miles, and the network will soon expand into Maryland. What it lacks—typical of the bottom of this list—is citywide-ness, and also the low prices you see in Europe and Asia.

12. Buenos Aires

Launched: 2010Size: 28 stations / approx. 1,000 bikesPrice: $3.76 per monthBuenos Aires was the first major South American city to try its luck with bike sharing, and has since been joined by Santiago, Chile, and Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. Until recently named Mejor en Bici—or "Better by Bike"—this government program is part of a larger initiative by the same name to build a cycling infrastructure in the Argentine capital. (The government just renamed it Ecobici, no relation to Mexico City's share.) The cool twist here? Although the hours aren't as generous as other programs—8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and limited hours on weekends—the program is completely free to residents, and rentals, if you call them that, are for an hour. And it's about to get a major overhaul: the city is expanding Ecobici to 200 stations and making it 24/7 at no extra cost to riders.