Bicycle rentals and pooled systems

This is an excerpt by Dave Holladay from an e-list posting:

By contrast London has now got OYBike which unlike the Decaux and CC schemes does not come with automatically attached advertising baggage. Unfortunately it does not yet have the backing of TfL's Cycling Centre of Excellence but a number of London Boroughs have installed smaller Pool Bike systems which are available to the public, and the University of East London scheme is so successful that within hours of installation - and a week before official launch, it was being used for (late) night-time shopping trips. OYBike is part of a tendered package for Toronto and is facing the Decaux machine (a huge team flown in) in Chicago (with their 1 person flying economy class...).

Check out the Bicycling page of the Transport for London website. It represents a paradigm shift in how to present information that promotes cycling in the context of a public transit agency. It is an example of a focus on accessibility beyond the specific operational responsibilities of the agency.

See "Green and yellow revolution - UEL launches UK's first free university cycle scheme," about the program at the University of East London.

The maximum price for the OYBike system is about $16/day. And people can rent bikes with mobile phones.