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Bike-sharing app company Spinlister is teaming up with Dutch urban bike maker Van Moof to create a hire bike scheme it says will take the traditional Boris Bike-style hire bike system and "turn it on its head". Instead of hiring bikes owned by municipalities from central locations, bikes on Spinlister's system will be owned by individuals and can be scattered around a town so they're in useful locations, It's less like Boris Bikes and more like Zip Car. Spinlister is a service based around a smartphone app that allows you find a bike to rent if you're in an unfamiliar town, to offer up a bike for rent if you've a spare usually gathering dust. It's a nice community-spirited idea, but it's hard to get involved as a renter if you don't have a suitable bike. many big cities have started bikeshare projects, still most of the cities lack a person to person bike sharing app, which is becoming the next generation bike sharing system. There is a growing number of apps that make it possible for cyclists who own spare bikes (no matter how old are they) to share with others and opens the possibility to find a bike to ride in cities without bikesharing systems. Some of the apps that are available are http://airdonkey.com, http://www.spinlister.com, http://www.cycleswap.nl . Read more here and in German here.
Cities are starting to put pedestrians and cyclists before motorists. That makes them nicer—and healthier—to live in. From Guangzhou to Brussels to Chicago, cities are shifting their attention from keeping cars moving to making it easier to walk, cycle and play on their streets. Some central roads are being converted into pedestrian promenades, others flanked with cycle lanes. Speed limits are being slashed. More than 700 cities in 50 countries now have bike-share schemes; the number has grown by about half in the past three years. Many cities are exploring ways to keep petrolheads and pedalophiles apart. Over 100, particularly in Latin America, close some roads to cars on weekends. Paris is leading the way in Europe, closing over 30km; Dublin and Milan plan to banish cars from their centres. Even Los Angeles (a city Steve Martin, a comic actor, satirised by getting in his car to drive three paces to his neighbour’s house in “LA Story”) recently announced plans for hundreds of miles of bus and cycle lanes. Read more here
