By Sean O'Neill
On 6 June, Hertz became the first major rental car company to offer
e-bikes, stocking a dozen at its Marble Arch location. Hertz's e-bikes
come in two slick-looking models, powered by lithium ion batteries and
nearly silent motors. The A2B Hybrid 24 model expects you to pedal,
increasing in speed the harder you work. The other model, the Fast4ward
Edge, doesn't require you to pedal at all. Like a moped, it uses a
throttle.
“If the launch is successful, then more bikes will
potentially be added to London, and the scheme expanded to other
cities,” said Neil Cunningham, general manager of Hertz UK and European
Strategic Projects.
Rental bikes aren't new to London. The city introduced Barclays Cycle Hire
in July 2010, and now the rental program has peak usage of about 24,000
users a day. Barclays has made about 5,000 traditional bicycles
available at hundreds of docking stations throughout the city, which
makes it a more convenient option than Hertz's mere dozen e-bikes at a
single location. But e-bikes are more welcoming for travellers with
varied levels of physical fitness —especially in a spread out city like
London — and Hertz's program could spread the appeal of cycling to a
broader set of travellers.
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| Illustration of bike shring system destribution at oobrien.com/vis/bikes/ , by the.urbanophile |
more about bike sharing:
I wish there was a picture of what those electric bikes are in London. Is that something similar to a Segway perhaps? I hope Hertz can sponsor or do something like that here in my hometown, that will surely give a good boost to houses for rent in Cincinnati Ohio.
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