http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/europe/london-to-launch-bike-hire= -scheme-with-quebec-made-cycles/article1647959/
London to launch bike-hire scheme with Quebec-made cycles
Elizabeth Renzetti
London - From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Jul. 21, 20= 10 10:42PM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 22, 2010 1:50AM EDT It took a man born in New York, a few lessons from Montreal and 6,000 bicyc= les built in Quebec to help rescue London from its reputation as one of Eur= ope's nastiest cities for cycling. When London's bike-hire scheme launches at the end of this month, its archi= tects will have learned from the growing pains of other cities' rental prog= rams - how not to have all your bikes left at the bottom of hills, for exam= ple, a problem that plagues Paris. But London's scheme owes its main debt to the Bixi bike-rental model in Mon= treal. And it has other roots in Canada: All 6,000 of London's bikes will b= e built at Devinci Cycles in Bagotville, Que., which also made the bikes fo= r Montreal. "In Montreal, we were impressed with the quality of the bikes, and people's=
passion for using them. The system was very well-managed," said Kulveer Ra= nger, transport adviser to Boris Johnson, the cycling-mad, New York-born ma= yor of London. Mr. Ranger and his team visited Canada last year to check ou= t the scheme and learned (carefully) to ride on the right-hand side of the = street. "There was a sense of ownership of the bikes that people in Montreal have, = and that's exactly the kind of thing we want in London, so that Londoners f= eel that these are their bikes and they look after them." Vandalizing them isn't going to be easy, because the heavy three-speed Devi= nci cycles are built like two-wheeled tanks. "It's not the sexiest bike in the world," Mr. Ranger said, "but it does hav= e a certain elegance." It also has a certain advertising value: The name of=
Barclays, the bank that has given =A325-million in sponsorship, appears in=
three places. F=E9lix Gauthier, the president of Devinci, came up with 43 modifications f= or the London bikes: The lights stay on for two minutes after pedalling sto= ps (so the bike will be illuminated for the duration of a London traffic li= ght), and there are improved mudguards to deal with wet weather. The front-= mounted baskets are small and open-sided to discourage joyriding. For tourists not used to riding on the left side of the road, a sign on the=
handlebars warns: "Do not undertake (i.e., pass) on the left." Unlike Pari= s's rent-a-bikes - and perhaps in defiance of the 23,000 bicycles stolen in=
London in the past year - these will have no locks, except at their dockin= g stations. But as the bikes weigh 23 kilograms, only the most determined m= ischief-maker is going to throw one in the Thames. Riders will have to pay an access fee of =A31 a day. After that, they'll be=
charged by the hour, with the scheme's designers hoping most journeys will=
be short: under 30 minutes is free, but a full 24 hours with a bike will c= ost =A350. (Registered Londoners can hire the bikes from July 30, but it wi= ll be the beginning of September before tourists will have access to the sc= heme.) The =A3140-million Barclays Cycle Hire was the brainchild of the previous m= ayor, Ken Livingston, but has been championed by his successor. An avid cyc= list, Mr. Johnson is a familiar figure on London's roads, and once even cha= sed a couple of muggers on his bike. One of the many hurdles to Mr. Johnson's two-wheeled revolution - which als= o includes bike "superhighways" and additional cycling police officers - ca= me when his local council refused to put a docking station on the street wh= ere the mayor lives (there will be 400 such stations located in central Lon= don.) A series of other small bumps had to be overcome: There was some grumbling = that the bikes were manufactured in Canada, and not Britain, and one person=
has mounted (and lost) a legal challenge against a docking station in the = wealthy neighbourhood of Mayfair. London, with its one-way traffic systems, crowded roads and extra-long bend= y buses, is often thought of as a cyclist's nightmare, but these new measur= es might change that reputation, said Tom Bogdanowicz of the London Cycling=
Campaign. "London had to become more cycle friendly, or it risked grinding to a halt.=
There simply isn't room for more cars on the road.'' Pedal pushing Other bike-hire schemes have used savvy marketing and catchy names to make = cycling appealing.
* Barclays Cycle Hire, as the bike-hire program is officially known in L= ondon, seems in need of an affectionate moniker. The London Wheel? The Big = Ben?
* V=E9lib - a combination of v=E9lo (bicycle) and libert=E9 (freedom) - = is the name Parisians have given to their system. It follows on the heels o= f V=E9lo'v, in Lyon, and V=E9lopop, in Avignon.
* ByCyklen, or City Bikes, was launched in Copenhagen in 1995, the first=
of this bike-sharing generation. Bicing in Barcelona, Spain; Bike Mi in Mi= lan, Italy.
* Bixi was launched in Montreal in the spring of 2009. Toronto residents=
can sign up next week for Bixi Toronto with the official start in May, 201= 1.
* ZotWheels, the first automated bike-sharing program in California and = the second at a U.S. university, won a green leadership award for the Unive= rsity of California Irvine campus.
* In the Mediterranean, Nicosia is working on a free public bicycle syst= em for Cyprus.
* In Australia, the first bike-share program has begun in Melbourne with=
Brisbane to follow in September.
* In China, Beijing wants its bikes back. Once commonplace images of tho= usands of cyclists have been replaced by traffic jams as the middle class e= mbraces the car. Both Beijing and Shanghai officials are pushing bicycle-sh= aring programs. Sources: Wires
P Do you really need to print this email? Please think of the environment f= irst.
Matthew Firth
Senior Officer
Health, Safety & Environment Branch
Canadian Union of Public Employees
1375 St. Laurent Blvd.
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 0Z7
Tel. (613) 237-1590 Ext. 240
Fax (613) 237-5508
mfirth@cupe.ca
--_000_75AEB4393587B34584BB7ABA5FB9049C906E6E07A0E2K7CLUSTERcu_
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<=
span
lang=3DEN-CA style=3D'font-size:8.5pt;color:black'>Elizabeth Renzetti
It to=
ok a man
born in
When
But
“In
“There was =
a
sense of ownership of the bikes that people in
Vandalizing them
isn’t going to be easy, because the heavy three-speed Devinci cycles =
are
built like two-wheeled tanks.
“It’s=
not
the sexiest bike in the world,” Mr. Ranger said, “but it does h=
ave
a certain elegance.” It also has a certain advertising value: The nam=
e of
Barclays, the bank that has given =A325-million in sponsorship, appears in =
three
places.
F=E9lix Gauthier,=
the
president of Devinci, came up with 43 modifications for the
For tourists not =
used
to riding on the left side of the road, a sign on the handlebars warns:
“Do not undertake (i.e., pass) on the left.” Unlike
Riders will have =
to pay
an access fee of =A31 a day. After that, they’ll be charged by the ho=
ur,
with the scheme’s designers hoping most journeys will be short: under=
30
minutes is free, but a full 24 hours with a bike will cost =A350. (Register=
ed
Londoners can hire the bikes from July 30, but it will be the beginning of
September before tourists will have access to the scheme.)
The =A3140-millio=
n
Barclays Cycle Hire was the brainchild of the previous mayor, Ken Livingsto=
n,
but has been championed by his successor. An avid cyclist, Mr. Johnson is a
familiar figure on
One of the many h=
urdles
to Mr. Johnson’s two-wheeled revolution – which also includes b=
ike
“superhighways” and additional cycling police officers – =
came
when his local council refused to put a docking station on the street where=
the
mayor lives (there will be 400 such stations located in central London.)
A series of other=
small
bumps had to be overcome: There was some grumbling that the bikes were
manufactured in
but
these new measures might change that reputation, said Tom Bogdanowicz of th=
e
London Cycling Campaign.
“
Other bike-hire s=
chemes
have used savvy marketing and catchy names to make cycling appealing.
need of an affectionate moniker. The Wheel? The Big Ben? - a combination of v=E9lo (bicycle) and libert=E9 (freedom) - is the n=
ame
Parisians have given to their system. It follows on the heels of V=E9l=
o'v,
in Lyon, and V=E9lopop, in bike-sharing generation. Bicing in was launched in in the spring of 2009. residents can sign up next week for Bixi Toronto with the official sta=
rt
in May, 2011. and the second at a university, won a green leadership award for the Irvine the Mediterranean, on a
free public bicycle system for bike-share program has begun in with to follow in September. commonplace images of thousands of cyclists have been replaced by traf=
fic
jams as the middle class embraces the car. Both and officials are pushing bicycle-sharing programs.
Sources:
Wires
P<=
/span> <=
/span>Do you really need to print this email? Please think of t=
he
environment first.
Matthew Firth
www.cupe.ca/environment<=
/span>
--_000_75AEB4393587B34584BB7ABA5FB9049C906E6E07A0E2K7CLUSTERcu_--
Pedal pushing
Senior Officer
Health, Safety & Environment Branch
Canadian
K1G 0Z7
Tel. (613) 237-1590 Ext. 240
Fax (613) 237-5508
mfirth@cupe.ca
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