page_title: Bicycle-sharing system
section_title: Automated stations
hierarchical_section_title: Bicycle-sharing system / Categorisation / Automated stations
caption_attribution_description: English: Bike sharing rack adjacent to West Lake, Hangzhou, China https://www.flickr.com/photos/paytonc/5377192122/
context_page_description: A bicycle-sharing system, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share scheme, is a service in which bicycles are made available for shared use to individuals on a short term basis for a price or free. Many bike share systems allow people to borrow a bike from a "dock" and return it at another dock belonging to the same system. Docks are special bike racks that lock the bike, and only release it by computer control. The user enters payment information, and the computer unlocks a bike. The user returns the bike by placing it in the dock, which locks it in place. Other systems are dockless.
  For many systems, smartphone mapping apps show nearby available bikes and open docks. In July 2020, Google Maps began including bike shares in its route recommendations.
context_section_description: Also known as docking stations bicycle-sharing, or membership bicycles or third generation consist of bicycles that can be borrowed or rented from an automated station or "docking stations" or "docks" and can be returned at another station belonging to the same system. The docking stations are special bike racks that lock the bike, and only release it by computer control. Individuals registered with the program identify themselves with their membership card (or by a smart card, via cell phone, or other methods) at any of the hubs to check out a bicycle for a short period of time, usually three hours or less. In many schemes the first half-hour is free. In recent years, in an effort to reduce losses from theft and vandalism, many bike-sharing schemes now require a user to provide a monetary deposit or other security, or to become a paid subscriber. The individual is responsible for any damage or loss until the bike is returned to another hub and checked in.
  This system was developed as Public Velo by Hellmut Slachta and Paul Brandstätter from 1990 to 1992, and first implemented by the University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council as Bikeabout in 1996 and in Rennes as LE vélo STAR. The smart card contactless technology was experimented in Vienna (Citybike Wien) and in 2005 at a large scale in Lyon (Vélo'v) and in 2007 in Paris (Vélib'). Since then over 1000 bicycle sharing system of this generation have been launched. The countries with the most dock based systems are Spain (132), Italy (104), and China (79). As of June 2014, public bike share systems were available in 50 countries on five continents, including 712 cities, operating approximately 806,200 bicycles at 37,500 stations. As of May 2011, the Wuhan and Hangzhou Public Bicycle bike-share systems in China were the largest in the world, with around 90,000 and 60,000 bicycles respectively. By 2013, China had a combined fleet of 650,000 public bikes.
  This bicycle-sharing system saves the labour costs of staffed stations (zero generation), reduces vandalism and theft compared to first and second generation systems by registering users but requires a higher investment for docking stations compared to the fourth generation dockless bikes. The third generations hold an advantage over fourth generation systems by being able to adapted docking stations into E-bike recharging stations for E-bike sharing.
caption: The Hangzhou Public Bicycle system in China, the largest bicycle sharing system in the world[8]
exif: {}