Tim S wrote:

Like Munich: they leave bicycles everywhere. You phone up with your bank
card and pay a rental charge. They give you an unlock code. You ride bike
anywhere in the city. When you've finished, you lock the bike up wherevere
you please (sensibly of course). Perhaps that would be lethal in London but
there are plenty of UK cities that are largely traffic calmed where it
would be a great idea. Self funding too (at a level the council can
choose). Capital cost - bugger all.

They tried something similar in in Cambridge years ago. Take all the
unclaimed bikes that the Police have recovered. Get young offenders to
paint them all green. Arrange special bike parks around town. The idea
was that when you need a bike you grab it from one stand cycle to where
you want go and leave it at a stand near your destination for the next
person.

Problem was, they launched the scheme to much fanfare and within a week
they had all been nicked.

Andrew