City Examines “City Bikes” Possibility

Reykjavík may soon join the list of cities with a “city bikes” service, renting out bicycles to residents to reduce car traffic downtown.

DV reports that Reykjavík City Council formed a workgroup this morning to look into the logistics of offering city-owned bikes to residents, to be temporarily rented in order to travel downtown.

“I am passionate about this project,” Reykjavík Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson told reporters. “It entails an ecologically sound form of transportation, healthy exercise, and is a part of making a better city. Bike rentals could also be a part of a sharing economy, which has been very much a part of discussions lately.”

Perhaps the most prominent example of the idea is CitiBike of New York. Residents can pay for a bike at any of the hundreds of bike stations around the city, ride it to where they need to go, and then return the bike at another station. As of October 2013, a reported 43,000 New Yorkers use the service every day.