Portland Bike Rentals

This was worthy of it's own thread.

Imagine if those bikes had EQbrowser embedded in a portable device.

My god, that poor homeless man has to buy his jeans at walmart!

I think it was New York that tried free bikes you had to return. LOL everyone just stole them.

Borzak said:

I think it was New York that tried free bikes you had to return. LOL everyone just stole them.

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Portland has the yellow bikes back in the mid 2000s where you never locked them up, just rode them to wherever and left them.

Bunch of homeless people stole them or threw em in the river.

Nikebikes weigh 58 pounds so no junkie is able to life them to toss in the river.

I do wonder how the rental fees work on those bikes. The other day at my usual bus stop I saw a guy and girl both get a bike, try to get on, lock the bikes back up and walk away. Hope that was free.

orcmauler said:

I do wonder how the rental fees work on those bikes. The other day at my usual bus stop I saw a guy and girl both get a bike, try to get on, lock the bikes back up and walk away. Hope that was free.

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They have them here in FL. You have to have an account preloaded with money prior to unlocking the bike. What they charge is based on distance when you end your session. I've used them several times downtown to get to/from bars and sporting arenas. It sure beats the hassle of a taxi or walking when going roughly a couple of miles.

orcmauler said:

I do wonder how the rental fees work on those bikes. The other day at my usual bus stop I saw a guy and girl both get a bike, try to get on, lock the bikes back up and walk away. Hope that was free.

Click to expand...

Biketown bikes are 2.50 for 30 minutes or 12 dollars for an "all day" pass which is only 2.5 hours of riding time. If you go over the time, you get charged 6 dollars for another hour. When you ride the bike it tracks all your movements and mileage which is kind of cool, here's a photo of the app trip thing from an alleycat race we had on nikebikes.

Vancouver just started this. Right only it's only in the early stages, so only founding members are riding them ($85 membership for the year I think) but eventually they'll expand into single use purchases I think. It's already working way beyond expectations, west coast hippies love their bikes.