Looking at the Treehugger slideshow, we can make a plain and clear-cut initial observation: bike sharing is now present in a number of large cities around the world. Every continent on the globe is represented: Istanbul, Melbourne, Boston, Milan, etc.
Moreover, the attention that different cities have paid to the aesthetics of their bikes is obvious. It is amusing to note how the styles appear to differ depending on the weather conditions of each city. The colours used are thus vibrant and hot in Milan, Melbourne and Washington whereas the tones are more neutral in London, Minneapolis and Boston.
It’s worth noting the good performance of the Parisian Vélib’: in fact, in July 2011, there were around 17,000 available across 1,202 stations. The system implemented by Paris Town Hall has indisputably established itself as one of the most effective in the world.
Cycling is a major issue in sustainable mobility
As we explained in a previous news feed, the growth, to a greater or lesser extent, in the number of bicycles in towns has a significant influence on the urban carbon footprint. If all towns were as bike-friendly as Copenhagen or Amsterdam, the impact on the greenhouse effect would be considerable.
Having understood this, governments in Europe and elsewhere have spent the past decade attempting to democratise the bicycle: with the provision of cycle paths, awareness campaigns with regard to health and safety and the environment… and, of course, the development of bike-sharing schemes.
These bike-sharing schemes would appear to have (partly) overcome the problems that occurred during their initial implementation in various towns: vandalism, theft, etc. The substantial growth in bike sharing over the past few years is, therefore, very good news for sustainable mobility.
Every year, Sustainable Mobility Week presents the opportunity to develop initiatives that stimulate awareness. In 2009, 227 million citizens learned more about sustainable mobility through 2,178 local initiatives in 39 countries. These statistics are enough to make the head spin and are encouraging in terms of the latest edition, which begins this Thursday! We look at how sustainable mobility is perceived by Europeans.
