The latest case study:
Bixis are piled up by the hundreds in front of the Wall Centre, where the Velo-city Global conference is taking place.
This modular bike-sharing system was developed by the Public Bike System Company set up by the parking authority of Montréal – and lots of cities, including Vancouver, are getting their version of it. I did a Price Tags on the Paris version – Vélib’ – back in the spring of 2008, when a particular kind of financial capitalism was collapsing.
Yes, they’re related: the culture and the economy always interact, though not in ways immediately obvious. It’s perhaps the reason why cycling is such a fault line at the moment: the issues, whether bike lanes or helmet laws, are only partly about cycling. They’re about our way of life, and how it’s changing.
On the ruins of one bankrupt system, another opportunity emerges. This one has two wheels.
At least that’s some of what we’ll be talking about in the next few days – so blogs posts will be at a little light. More later.
Cool. Bike-sharing is very innovative.