Bike City, baby

Matching Paris and Barcelona, Washington D.C. became the first city in the United States to launch a public bike-sharing program. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (a Democrat, of course) has been working to "transform Washington into a 'world-class city'," wrote Elissa Silverman of the Washington Post yesterday morning, "SmartBike DC will rent 120 bikes at 10 self-service racks mostly in the downtown area, including near the Gallery Place, Shaw and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations." So, for an annual fee of $40, you get to pick up a fire-engine red 3-speed bicycle (not unlike Amsterdam's MacBike Company), at your disposal for a maximum of three hours, at which point you can swap it out for another bike and continue on your way, with an unlimited number of "transactions" per annum. How cool is that?


Parisian Bicycle Project

Having adjusted to cycling as my main mode of transportation over the past few weeks, I am delighted to hear that at somewhere in the US a similar program is being adopted. Having rediscovered the joy of cycling, I've been happily daydreaming of the eco-friendly life I could lead back home, biking to work, to class, to the grocery store - the sky is the limit! - my enthusiasm was abruptly dampened by the realization that Seattle, unlike Amsterdam, is not flat. There are hills, rather large ones in fact, and they make cycling unpleasant and, quite frankly, more trouble than it's worth at times. So I suppose the sky isn't the limit here, the hills are. Oh well, I like driving too much to quit anyway - the dichotomy between my absolute joy and horror/guilt every time I start the ignition is just plain lame.

For the full article on Mayor Fenty's new program, read Silverman's article in the Washington Post.