In case you missed it last week: Dublin now has a new bike share system called dublinbikes. Dubliners can get a "subscription" to the service for a year for 10 euros. With a subscription, you can take out a bike for up to 30 minutes for free (and for longer periods by paying a graduated fee). Visitors can get a 3-day pass for two euros.The program has been successful in its first week. There are already more than 6,000 subscribers and, it seems, zero cases of vandalism or theft. Here's a amateur video of one of the rental stations.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA_QSFUD02IDublin's bike share is being run by JC Decaux, the same company that runs Paris's Vélib' bike share. In Paris (and, presumably, in Dublin) the city keeps the revenue from the bike share service and JC Decaux, in exchange, gets lots of outdoor advertising space. This arrangement-with JC Decaux being responsible for running a program it doesn't directly profit from-has causedproblems in the past.But it's great to see bike share programs branching out like this. And the Dublin bikes are cleverly adapted for their environment. Check out the huge water guards over the back tire. Any Dubliners out there used this yet?Photo from Flickr user informatique (cc)
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