Bike Vending Machine
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 08.14.07
This is the urban bicycle-rental stand, which won an award at this year's Spark Design & Architecture Awards. It's designed to allow one-way journeys, with drop off and pick-up points in various locations around a city. Each bike would be fitted with an RFID chip to track and log journeys, and customers would pay a small charge to rent a bike. It was designed by Dutch agency, Springtime, who have worked for Nike, Coca Cola and Toyota.
Several cities have implemented bike rental or free-bike schemes, and this system, excluding initial investment, could help to keep costs down. Of course, there are problems with it, such as the fact that you are relying on the previous renter to return the bike in good condition. Presumably there is no way for the machine to know if the bike it is handing out has a flat tire or other problem. ::BikeDispenser via ::TrendHunter via ::Gizmodo
It’s a neat idea but i see it having a lot of potential problems. After working out all the kinks it looks like it will be an interesting new way to enjoy the city views and hotspots. Hope it comes with a lock incase you want to stop for lunch!
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Perhaps this concept would work well in small suburban communities. However, in large North American or Asian inner cities, the bikes would quickly become the traget of thieves or vandals. THe RFID chip can only locate the bike after it is stolen, not protect it from being stolen or vandalised in the first place.
If the world was a nicer place, this would be a workable idea.
Interesting idea. Fix the problems that have been mentioned, and it could be something that I would use.
That is, if they improved the design of that bike. That thing just looks like a seatfull of awkwardness. Would it kill designers to make something a little sexier? I know that I'm getting a bike from a vending machine, but does it have to look like that?
What's wrong with the bike? Looks pretty cool to me.
They way to deal with flat tires and other mechanical problems is to make a 2 minute rental free, so a person has time to realize the problem and return it without getting charged.
To get it fixed, you can offer free rentals for people who report legitimate problems :)
Bikes of that design are very common on Europe. Typically the ones with the small wheels and high seat posts are folding bikes, popular because you can take them into your office to prevent theft and because they are free to take on the trains (and the only kind of bike you can take on some kinds of mass transit like trams or buses.)
Attractive design of the stand (as illus) is important - makes it more appealing. Gov/Train co. could go into this biz and consider it a part of an integrated mktg plan to popularize train commuting. Don't just spend $ on ads to promote train - get these in place to help support commuters. Vancouver, Ca, for example has West Coast Express that gets u downtown, but then u r often needing bus or cab. Bikes would solve medium distance journeys from train stn + back. Best for no-snow cities, I guess. Vanc. would need Brock-a-Brella rentals too, eh?