Cars & Transportation (bikes)

Hot on the spinning heels of Vancouver’s new Bike Share initiative comes more red bicycles, as part of SEVici (Seville Bici). Launched late in July 07 with 300 bikes at 30 ‘stations’ the plan is to roll out a total of 1,500 bicycles to 150 sites before the end of the year. The JC Decaux company is supplying the bicycles to the city for free in exchange for the right to use the bikes and the stations for advertising. This is the same arrangement in the French city of Lyon, which we reported on exactly two years ago, so one assumes it remains a win-win for both the company and the participating cities. Seville’s residents (and visitors) can get a weekly coupon for 5 euros (~7 USD). The first half hour of each use is free with additional hours costing 2 euros. The bikes themselves (see You Tube vid here) come with lights, carrier basket, mud guards, chain guards, spoke guards, bell, stand and integrated lock. Our rough and ready translation of the Spanish site suggested the tag phrase for the service was something like “to move without contaminating.” All the best to Seville for joining other long sighted cities such as Amsterdam, Lyon, Paris, London, Barcelona and Cordoba in adding bicycles to their public transport mix. ::SEVici, via ::Expatica.