Photo by Richard Stirba
The bike-sharing road show rolls into Seattle on Tuesday and Redmond on Wednesday this week for anyone who wants an up-close look at these systems aimed at putting bicycles in more people's hands.
The Bike Share Expo features bicycles and kiosks from Bixi, B-Cycle and The Bike Share Group that will be available to the public for testing and riding.
King County is taking a look at a possible bike-sharing program, although there are no firm plans. The Cascade Bicycle Club, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Group Health are all interested in such a program, which would probably be run by a third-party with oversight by county government.
How it works
Essentially, a bike share program allows subscribers to swipe a membership card at an automatic kiosk to use a bicycle. Charges vary, and the bicycles can be returned to a kiosk in another part of the city. The companies that run the programs offset their costs by displaying advertising.
According to the King County announcement:
“This two-day expo will include the newest North American bike share programs demonstrating their systems and will help continue the on-going dialogue about how a bike share system might work for the region.”
Worldwide
More than 100 cities in the world have bike sharing programs. Washington DC, pictured above, is home to the largest one in the US, and Montreal's Bixi program is the largest in North America.
The largest bike-sharing program in the world is in Paris, which has 23,000 bicycles. Hangzhou, China, plans to trump that with 50,000 bicycles by the end of the year.
Bike share vendors are hitting the streets this summer to present demonstrations in cities on the east and west coasts. A bike-sharing demo already has been held in San Francisco on Aug. 2, and demos are planned in New York City on Aug. 15 and 22. Portland, Oregon, is another destination for the show on Aug. 14 and 16 at the Southeast Portland Sunday Parkways Event.
Seattle and Redmond
The Bike Share Expo is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the South Lake Union Discovery Center, 101 Westlake Ave. N., Seattle; and 12 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Redmond Town Center, 76th Street and 166th Avenue. Helmets will be provided.
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