There was recently an interesting discussion on Locally Grown Northfield about bike-sharing programs. It coincided with some recent news on such programs: the roll-out of Washington, D.C.’s SmartBike DC program and the announcement that bicycles would be made available to the public at the Democratic and Republican political conventions, with the latter being nearby in St. Paul later this summer.

The discussion and the news prompted me to e-mail Paul DeMaio of MetroBike in Washington, DC. Paul provides consulting services related to bike sharing. I asked him whether a town such as Northfield, Minnesota (population 18,000) could attract one of the providers of the high-tech bicycle-sharing programs, such as Clear Channel Outdoor’s SmartBike program or JCDecaux’s Cyclocity program.

He said that a town the size of Northfield probably wouldn’t be able to attract those larger firms, given the costs of setting up such a service. But he did mention the possibility of a private service called Nextbike, which operates in Germany and New Zealand. He also thought that a non-profit model, with the cooperation of the colleges, city, and local businesses might work. He gave Toronto Bikeshare as an example, though after doing some research I found that program has been canceled. Perhaps another model is the Humana Freewheelin’ program that is being used at the political conventions. Some of those bikes will remain in the Twin Cities, so we can monitor how things proceed there.

Perhaps someone here might explore the option of the Nextbike model as a business opportunity. Their web site and a video describe how it works: users find a Nextbike, call a number and receive a code that they can use to unlock a bike, then they pay a fee for rental.

One advantage of a bike-sharing program is that people who drive in from surrounding areas could use these bikes while they’re in town. Others may like the fact that they don’t have to worry about maintaining and storing a bike.

In any case, the possibilities are intriguing, and I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 11:36 am and is filed under Biking/Walking, Uncategorized.