B-Cycle

The great idea of an urban bike sharing system is now in the works for the US. Similar systems have successfully been put into place around Europe, Velib in France and the Dublin Bicycle Program in Ireland (which i wrote about in an earlier post). This new program called B-Cycle has been created by an odd collaboration between the healthcare company Humana, bike manufacture Trek, and advertisement agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. This Plan B (hence the name B-Cycle) to automobiles is the beginning to a "new American philosophy of going". The plan is very simple: B-Stations which offer B-Cycles available for anyone to use, at a small fee, are set up around a city. The user can take their B-Cycles wherever they want: to work, to the store, to the park, and then they can return their bike to any B-Station. The first program is in the works around the city of Denver, Colorado. The B-Cycle website offers a program that they call the B-Effect, which shows how the B-Cycle system can effect your community. Their website is also hosting a sort of contest where you can vote for your town or city to have a B-Cycle system set up there. The following video explains the plan and the easy to use system.

(See original core77 post here)