I Bike, You Bike, We All Bike!

Tallahassee and Copenhagen may not have much in common, but with Copenhagen’s latest Bike-Share competition we can determine one thing – we are both addled with bikes!

I haven’t taken a bike to student ratio, but I would estimate that the local university Florida State is home to more bicycles.  This should not be misconstrued as a negative situation as it indicates that the students have green intentions; however, most of the bicycles have been abandoned by their owners, chained and useless.  Copenhagen has found the solution to this affliction – the Bike-Share System.  They had a world-wide response with over 127 entries from five continents, all with a ground-breaking idea on how to effectively develop a Bike-Share system opposed to a City Bike Free-for-All Giveaway.

The winner, LOTS Design’s OPENbike, incorporated the traditional foundations of a bicycle (including the basket for pug-transportation) with the modern technology.  These bikes need no parking station, no chains, and no external registration system – they use a card sensor technology that makes it as easy to get a bike as holding your ID up to the seat.  The idea behind the OPENbike is hassle-free accessibility.  The ID is something akin to the Oyster card of London, one card that can be used for a multitude of things.  For Copenhagen, as for London, it makes public transportation that much easier; for Tallahassee, it’s inspiration. OPENbike offers cargo add-ons in case the traditional basket isn’t sufficient and LED green/red lights to display availability (which is another thing Tallahassee and Copenhagen have in common, green still means go!).

The OPENbike concept liberates the unwanted bicycles, offering transport to anyone who should need it and promoting a greener and easier mode of transportation.  I look forward to the day where I can wave my ID, hop on any available bike, and be on my environmentally-conscious way.

I think the most important essence of the OPENbike, aside from how simply cool it is, is the sense of community that it promotes.  Today, everything is about what’s “mine” – my car, my bike, my scooter; some individuals have six modes of transport while others have none.  Whether your community is your office, your neighborhood, or your town, it’s important to remember what we were taught as children: to share.