However, bikes mix poorly with fast-moving cars and trucks. Few reasonable citizens wish to bike under those conditions, and certainly not on a daily basis. Some European cities have banned cars from their centers, and American cities would do well to emulate them. Even a partial ban on personal internal combustion vehicles could present cities with opportunities to invest in a bike infrastructure, with the resulting benefits of cleaner air, less noise, less need for parking, increased vitality for downtown businesses, and a higher overall quality of life. In the simplest version of this program, the city makes a fleet of modest bicycles available to anyone in the downtown.
Program managers paint the bikes specific color, say bright yellow.
Anyone can pick up a bike, ride it anywhere in the designated program area, and leave it. Distribution of the bikes is at the whims of the ebb and flow of normal human daily conduct. Modern technology would outfit the bikes with tracking devices, so they can be located if pilfered, and the perpetrators cited. Public scooter programs . A take off on the above, with electric scooters .