BikeMi
Encyclopedia
BikeMi is a public bicycle sharing system in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It was launched on 8 December 2008 and is contracted to and operated by Clear Channel
Clear channel
A clear-channel station is an AM band Radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. Usually known as class A stations since 1982, they are occasionally still referred to by their former...

 on the basis of its SmartBike system. The scheme encompasses more than 1,400 bicycles and 120 stations.

The service is active from 7am to midnight and has about 5,000 users a day, with a record of 5,451 on 9 September 2011.

The system is based on 1-day, 1-week or 1-year subscriptions, which allows users to rent a bike. Rentals are free for the first 30 minutes. After that time, in order not to pay more, the bike has to be returned in a station. However, unlimited number of rentals are allowed in a day. The scheme is similar to the Vélib'
Vélib'
' is a large-scale public bicycle sharing system in Paris, France. Launched on 15 July 2007, the system has expanded to encompass over 20,000 bicycles and 1,202 bicycle stations, located across Paris and in some surrounding municipalities...

one. There are at present more than 12,000 users with an annual subscription.

Prices range from €2.50 for a 1-day subscription to €36 for the annual one. An additional fare of €0.50 per half-hour is charged for rentals exceeding 30 minutes and not longer than further 2 hours. After that time a €2.00 per hour fine applies.

The system is planned to grow to 200 stations and almost 3000 bikes by the end of 2012, although the expansion is currently on hold due to lack of funds.

External links

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