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Comment by ugh | Hacker News Reader

This article seems oddly focused on France. I also know of similar efforts in Germany. And I have seen similar bikes in Spain.

It would be much more interesting to get a European perspective.

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Not just European: Montreal, Canada has this too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixi

Interestingly enough, vandalism seems to be much lower, though still significant: "...one in five bikes have been damaged and 15% of bike racks are defective..."

While many bikes are still defective, they have fixed the problem with the racks that allowed people to steal bikes (and break the rack at the same time).

Switzerland also has a bike rental program in several cities (http://www.suisseroule.ch), and students can borrow them for free (insured against their university account). During the summer, I saw people riding those bikes around all the time, but I have no idea how popular the program is. You can also rent bikes at all the major train stations.

Not in Europe, but in Montreal (Canada), we've got Bixi bikes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIXI) and it has similar issues with damage and theft. In addition to the issues mentioned in the wiki page, there were also problems with double billing... but it still seems to be doing well regardless.

I was there recently and it didn't sound anywhere near as bad as the article. And I could see people riding the bikes everywhere

I was in Paris for a week in Spring, and rode velibs everywhere every day.

No problems at all. Occasionally you found a knackered one, but it looked like wear and tear rather than vandalism. It's a superb idea.

http://www.bikemi.com

In Milan (Italy) works very well

Brussels too : http://en.villo.be/

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