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How might we restore vibrancy in cities and regions facing economic decline? Read the challenge brief

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bicycle, brussels, collaboration, sharing

Inspiration
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Mission #1 Explore Vibrancy Find out more...

Sharing bicycles

City of Brussels provides bicycles stations across the city inviting people to discover the city on a bike. Having more pedestrians and bikers in a city than cars increases the vibrancy of a city by more social encounters and experiences.
Every 500m there is a bicycle station in Brussels. It allows people to pick up a bicycle when and where you need one, and bring it back later at any station of your choice. It's a great way to promote alternative modes of transport than cars and the collaborative concept of the stations supports the feeling of being part of a community. The vibrancy of the city is increased by this sharing concept because more citizens are active and socially interacting with each other, they are responsible for bringing the bike back and are consciencely improving the city's ecological footprint in a sustainable way.
Mission #1 Explore Vibrancy Find out more...

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Szilvia Varga

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December 05, 2011, 09:52AM
Great inspiration, thanks for sharing!

I remember talking to someone at JCDecaux, the world leader in outdoor advertising, a while back who said that they came up with the idea and implemented it in Paris which became a huge success: http://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/development/cycles/
Brussels also chose JCDecaux to provide the bikes: http://www.jcdecaux.com/en/Newsroom/Archives/2006/Brussels-chooses-JCDecaux-to-provide-its-public-bicycle-service
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Natasja Billiau's reply to Szilvia Varga's comment

Natasja Billiau

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December 04, 2011, 08:55PM
Hi Anne-Laure,
Thank you very much for sharing all those interesting links. You're totally right, it looks like shared transportation and sustainable transport will be important topics which define a vibrant city.
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Anne-Laure Fayard's reply to Szilvia Varga's comment

Anne-Laure Fayard

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December 04, 2011, 09:13PM
Looking forward to see what emerges in the concepting phase...
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Meena Kadri's reply to Szilvia Varga's comment

Meena Kadri

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December 05, 2011, 07:00AM
Cheers for the Inspiration, Natalie! Another way to check for related items would be to hit the Update button on the right of your post, then scroll down to Build Upon. Search terms like 'bike', 'bicycle' 'cycling', etc and drag anything relevant over to your Build Upon field. Keep up the great work!
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Theos Stamoulis

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December 05, 2011, 05:06AM
It seems that the bicycle sharing model is slowly making its way to the US. After hearing about this program in Europe, I was most surprised when I saw this model being implemented in Washington DC. Capital Bikeshare (www.capitalbikeshare.com) puts 1,100 bikes at over 100 stations in the city. Hopefully we'll see this model continue to gain momentum throughout other cities in the US.
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Louis Johnson

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December 04, 2011, 10:47PM
Similar idea in Copenhagen of increasing alternative transportation, but by reducing parking...

http://www.istp.murdoch.edu.au/ISTP/casestudies/Case_Studies_Asia/european/european.html

Exceprt from the article,

'Each year Copenhagen reduced central area parking by 3%. Each year they pedestrianised more streets. Each year they built or refurbished city housing. Each year they introduced into the streets all kinds of attractive landscaping, sculptures, and seating (including 3000 seats along footpath cafes). And each year they introduced more buskers, markets and other street life and festivals that became more and more popular. As Jan Gehl said, "the city became like a good party".'

Bikes as you state would play a major role in a move like this. Many American cities need these types of efforts, though probably at a reduced scale.

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