Municipal bicycle rental program to be launched in T.A. in 2008
Project will initially include 2,500 bicycles, 25 rental stations at popular sites.
By Tamara Traubmann Tags: Tel AvivTel Aviv may soon join Paris and other European capitals in offering bicycle rentals on a mass scale at a very low cost.
Senior Tel Aviv municipality officials expect the new program to be launched in 2008. The program is designed to reduce traffic congestion as well as pollution in the city. Each year, some 1,100 residents of central Israel die as a result of air pollution.
However, a senior municipality official warns that a new law requiring bicyclists to wear a helmet or face a fine may diminish the program's success.
The tender for the operation of the program, which is to be operated by a private company, is scheduled to be publicized in the coming weeksץ
The new program will allow people to pick up a bicycle at any of 25 rental stations throughout the city, and drop it off at another station in the vicinity of the person's destination. Dr. Moshe Tyomkin, in charge of Tel Aviv's transportation, traffic and parking, told Haaretz on Sunday that the project will include 2,500 bicycles at first, and will expand in accordance with the program's popularity.
The stations will be erected in central areas such as theaters, hospitals and train stations. Tyomkin added that the rental cost would be minimal, maybe even single shekels. The cost will be charged from the customer's credit card in order to prevent bicycle theft.
Yotam Avizohar, the director of the Israel Bicycle Association, welcomed the initiative, but expressed doubt over the adequacy of the city's bicycle paths. Tel Aviv's paths, currently a total of 74 kilometers long, "are still unsatisfactory ? especially in the southern and eastern parts of the city, though there are many bicyclists there," Avizohar said.
Avizohar maintained that the municipality is promoting policies that contradict each other. "If the municipality wants to promote bicycle riding and walking, it cannot continue to build massive parking lots, roads and lanes for private vehicles," he said.
The municipality has said that the new mandatory helmet law recently passed by the Knesset is a "serious blow" to the project and will hinder its success. According to Tyomkin, residents will be reluctant to rent a helmet previously worn by dozens of others. The law, which was passed despite the objection of public transportation groups, will go into effect at the end of the month and will require all bicyclists to wear a helmet or face a fine.
A similar bicycle rental program was launched in Paris this year, which will reach some 20,000 bicycles and 1,500 stations by year's end. Similar programs have been established in Lyon, Olso, Copenhagen, Vienna, Berlin and Helsinki. A bicycle rental initiative is being examined in London.
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To begin a long journey one must first take a step. There are any number of impediments to convenient cycling in Israel, but if the authorities get on the 'bike', well that is something!
infringing on a free man's rights. i want to ride without a helmet, so be it. you want to smoke, do it. you want to drive on Israel's streets, do it. you want to rock climb, do it. you want to take heroin, do it. Man is free to do want he wants, as long as he is not harming others.
Israelis don't like being forced to do anything (and anyway flout traffic laws, etc.), but love saving money. Why not charge a lower price to those who take a helmet along with the bike? They'll prefer to wear them rather than carry them! I hope that if the program succeeds in Tel Aviv, then ... next year in Jerusalem!
The correspondent does not say that people would not want to use a helmet, she is saying that they would not want to RENT the helmet along with the bike, i.e. a helment that has been worn by maybe hundreds of other people.
The European programs listed succeed because of what comes with them: a safe network of bike paths (this solves much of the helmet problem), encouragement from employers, and integration with public transit (bike racks, discounted fares, etc.). Making bikes available is only a first step.
in Israel most of the year. Anyone going to work or an appointment does not like to look a mess when they step down from their cycle. Of course safety is very important but the helmet is sometimes a pain. Holland, THE cycling nation has no such law. Of course we have a perfect system of cycle paths, so the chance of us getting hit by a car/truck is very small. In Israeli traffic anno 2007, a cycle helmet is a wise choice.
talking about bike renting services in european cities: barcelona started a pilot program of take-and-go bikes for citizens a few months before Paris. now the system is working, but its lacks and defects are still to be remedied. i suggest that T.A. officials contact the conuncils of those cities already running similar systems in order to avoid well-known problems with the service.
Now all we need is a friggin subway and this city is on its way.