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.
July 17-19, 2011 -- Berlin is another European city with great public transportation and bicycling systems. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn rapid transit railway systems get Berliners and visitors to their destinations in Western and Eastern Berlin.
Bikes are big in Berlin. As I was walking towards Brandenburg Gate on Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district on a weekday morning, I saw more bicycle commuters than automobiles. One biker after another rolled by. It was an amazing sight to see.
And there is a unique bike sharing system in many German cities run by Deutsche Bahn. Call a Bike is different than most bike sharing systems because you don't have to check out and return a bike to a fixed station. There is an electronic rear wheel lock and cable lock that allows riders to leave the bike pretty much anywhere. The reason it is called Call a Bike is because the customer calls a phone number to receive a 4-digit authorization code that will unlock the nearest bike. In addition to Berlin, Call a Bike is available in Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich, Karlsruhe and Saarbrucken.
Berliners like to bike to the new multi-leveled, futuristic-looking Central Train Station, which opened to the public in 2006 on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof railway terminal. This is bicycle parking in front of Hauptbahnhof.
With trains coming and going above you and below you, the railway station feels like something out of the "The Jetsons" or Fox's animation science fiction show "Futurama."
And it is easy to recycle at Berlin Central Train Station with these large recycling containers.
Click here for more observations of Berlin on Josh's Travel Blog.
Here are more photos from Berlin. Click here to see the set on Flickr
And here is video of a U-Bahn subway train arriving at Hallesches Tor station near my hostel:
