Day 4 – Vienna: Bicycles
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This one made me think of Geoff & Sang. Walking around at Vienna at night, having just arrived, we ran into a unique element of Vienna’s public transportation system: bicycles. The bikes you see aren’t for rent – they’re for free. Anyone’s who registered can check one out. To register, all you have to do is insert an ATM card (to verify your identity) and you get a little plastic card, much like a modern library card. You use the card to check bikes in & out at each location, and you don’t even have to return the bike to the same spot you checked it out from. If you ever had to transfer from a train to a bus line a few blocks away, that has to make it a heck of a lot easier. Likewise, if you just needed to go down, run a few errands, and then head back home. To borrow from my freshly departed British brethren, that’s bloody brilliant. |
December 18th, 2005 at 9:01 am
Wow! Thanks for sharing. I am pretty darn sure the system wasn’t around in 2003. I spent days all over that beautiful city and never saw a single bike, let alone an intelligent public exchange system like you describe! Kewl, dude!