Comments about ‘Salt Lake City officials, residents get a look at bike-sharing programs’

I thought these were to be heavy duty bicycles. What is the purpose of the simple shifting and "breaking" mechanisms?

We have the B-Cycle version here in London, and the scheme is fantastic. It's so good, in fact, that I am going to sell the bike I used to commute on and commute on the "Boris Bike" (slang for these bikes, which references the Mayor of London, who pushed the scheme). In London, Barclays has paid a huge amount to have their names on the bikes, and several new Bicycle Superhighways (great commuter routes) are painted in Barclays blue. I would be thrilled if SLC got a partner to step up and sponsor the scheme in my homtetown, but these are potentially an expensive boondoggle for the city to take on by itself. Zions Bank, America First CU, Energy Solutions, Blue Cross, IHC, I'm looking at you!

Good thing they are going to be able to track them. The city of Charleston tried something similar with free to use bikes. Within a month all the bikes disappeared.

Jodakota, the way it is done in London and Paris, for example, you have to provide a credit card in order to get a ticket that allows you to take a bike from the rack. Therefore, if you decide not to return it, your card is charged the replacement cost. It's a pretty slick system, and there isn't any incentive to fail to return the bike.

@UteExpat, the London scheme is based on Montreal's Bixi. I'm a Montreal resident and the Bixi system here has been a wild success. I can't post URLs, but bixi's site has the following news snippet:

"On July 30th, 2010, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, launched the latest addition to the BIXI franchise. London is adding its name to an impressive list of world metropolises including Montreal, Melbourne, Boston, Washington and Minneapolis that have adopted the BIXI public bike system as an active and environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional modes of urban transport."

Either way, I would think such a scheme would be great for SLC.

Does a one-size-fits-all helmet come with the bike rental? Helmets can get sweaty on warm days. Wearing a helmet containing someone else's sweat is not very appealing.