About a third of urban trips in the US are less than three miles. Using a car, particularly in good weather, is often inefficient but there are also issues with public transportation and walking is usually too slow. Bikes can be a good solution, but there are issues of having the bike where you need it, finding a safe path and having a place to safely park the bike when the trip is over.
Bike shares attack part of the problem - having a bike near where you are and giving you a place to drop it off without worries. Implementation aruond the world has been spotty, but the new system in Minneapolis seems to be working well.
Nice Ride MN: Minnesota's Bike Share Expands from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
Tropical Minneapolis, by the way, is a hotbed for bicycling activity that goes beyond the sport and toy use common to the US. A small, but growing segement of the population is beginning to use bikes for commuting and errands.
Comments