Kitakyushu City Launches Official Use of Rental Bicycles

Copyright Kitakyushu City

Kitakyushu City in Fukuoka Prefecture announced on August 24, 2010, that its city officials started to use the rental bicycle service called "City Bike" offered in the city's central area, on September 6, 2010.

In order to be worthy of being called an environmental capital, the city developed the Kitakyushu City Environmental Capital Comprehensive Transportation in December 2008, to create a transportation system that can be used easily by everyone. As part of the strategy, the non-profit organization (NPO) "Town Mobile Network Kitakyushu" has been running City Bike since March 27, 2010.

City Bike is the system to rent and return electric bicycles at any station at all hours. A total of 116 bicycles are available at 10 stations in the city's downtown area. By the end of July, 3363 bicycles had been rented out to both members and for temporary use. In July, an average of 41 people used the rental bike service each day. The city signs a corporate contract with the NPO, and each section of the city office registers the users. The rental fee is 105 yen (about US$ 1.27) per hour, and a 525 yen (about US$ 6.33) is applied for over 5 hours of use.

City Bike is expected to secure transportation means for official business within the city center where parking cars is difficult. It will also encourage the shift from cars to bicycles for short trips.

Fuji Xerox Tokyo Cuts CO2 Emissions by Switching to Power-Assisted Bicycles (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/030075.html

Posted: 2011/01/04 06:00:15 AM