Dublin
There is a bike sharing scheme operating in Dublin and it works pretty well.
The scheme launched on September 13th 2009, so less than year ago, and as for today more then 1 million journeys were made
The uptake of people was way grater than initially predicted, to quote the wikipedia
Approximately 1,000 people used the
bicycles in the first six hours (day
of launch), with a further thousand
people having subscribed to use
them.2 Some 11,000 people applied in
the first fortnight and Dublin City
Council's supply of subscriber cards
was reduced to zero, with the Council
having initially targeted a
5,000-person uptake in the first
year. More than 25,000 people had
applied to take part in the scheme by
March 2010
As for the points that I think made the scheme work:
- clever pricing system (more below)
- very poor alternative in public transport around city centre
- the bikes are transported by trucks if some of the spots run out of bikes and other are overloaded
On the pricing, the bikes are intended to be used for short journeys within the city centre and used by as many people as possible as opposed to be used by one person for a whole day, and the pricing reflects that. Once you pay one year membership (currently 10 euro) then the following prices apply:
- up to 30 min - free
- 1 hr - €0.50
- 2 hrs €1.50
- 3 hrs €3.50
- 4 hrs €6.50
So as you see the first 30 minutes are free, and you should easily be able to reach each destination in the area operated by the scheme within that time. So cyclist leave the bike at the station as soon as they reach the destination, they do not hold on to it (e.g. keeping for the return journey). In that way a single bike can be used by more people
Official site of Dublin Bikes