Photos: Bike Sharing Around the World

Here in Washington, D.C. we recently celebrated the first anniversary of the wildly popular Capital Bikeshare bike sharing system. It is a point of pride in the nation's capital that the largest bike sharing system in North America has become such a success. With demand so high, CaBi is adding new stations in The District and Arlington County, Virginia and expanding to Alexandria, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland. The apple red bicycles are a hit with locals and tourists alike and are a potent reminder to politicians on Capitol Hill that voters ride bikes and expect our national and regional leaders to increase funding for bicycle infrastructure, education and safety across America.

The aim is build up bike sharing in D.C. and other U.S. cities that rival those in Europe. A trip to Europe this past summer reveals that, at least in Washington, D.C., we have come a long way to achieving that goal. Here are photos of bike sharing systems from my recent trip to Europe and Israel.

LONDON - BARCLAY'S CYCLE HIRE

BRUSSELS - VILLO!

BERLIN - CALL A BIKE

PARIS - VELIB

BARCELONA - BICING

TEL AVIV - TEL-O-FUN

Green Traveler: Barcelona, Spain

July 23-27, 2011 -- Barcelona is a bike-friendly city because of its excellent bicycle infrastructure, including center and left side bike lanes on major boulevards. When bike lanes are located in or near the center of a major two-way avenue and are physically separated from traffic by dividers, then bikers don't have to worry about being crunched between parked cars and moving vehicles on the right side of the road and it makes for a safer experience for both bikers and drivers.

Here is an example of a physically separated two-way bike lane on the left side of a one-way avenue in Barcelona.

Bicycle traffic signals are another safety measure to help make it easier for bikers in Barcelona.

Many Barcelonians take advantage of the city's bike sharing system, called Bicing. Currently the network consists of more than 400 stations and over 6,000 bicycles for the 80,000 annual riders.

Bicing is only available to residents of Barcelona who purchase an annual membership so it limits the options for short-term visitors. However, one option is taking a bicycle tour of Barcelona through a tour company like Travel Bound. This chopper did the job navigating the streets of this historic port city.

Barcelona is building up its electric vehicle charging infrastructure. For EV drivers there are designated parking spaces like this one to juice up.

And like other major European cities, Barcelona has an excellent public transportation system. The Funicular de Montjuic gets passengers up the hill from the Barcelona Metro Parallel station to the Parc de Montjuic station.

Click here for more observations of Barcelona on Josh's Travel Blog.

Here is video of the Barcelona Metro, Funicular and the airport train.



Here is video of the bike tour around Barcelona.



Here are more photos of Barcelona. Click here to see the set on Flickr.