Peer to Peer Public Transit

Have long appreciated Portland's free community bike programme, the now demised, Yellow Bike.

So, with great interest, I read this Wired article on the bike sharing programme launched in Lyon, Vélo'v.

From the Wired article:

The rent-a-bike scheme, called Vélo'v Grand Lyon, is open to anyone armed with a credit card. It costs 1 euro ($1.20) an hour, but there is no charge for the first 30 minutes. Since 90 percent of trips take less than half an hour, most subscribers pay nothing.

In just three months, the program has signed up 15,000 subscribers who take 4,000 trips a day and travel over 24,800 miles a week on 2,000 public bikes at 150 bike stations.

It does seem like a simple and practical solution for dealing with short jaunts. Now if only Jorg & Olif would pick up on this idea.