Transportation
European Bikeshare Rankings: Who Comes Out on Top?
The Dutch are in dead last, and one program stands above the rest.
Comparing the world's bikeshare programs is a formidable task—there are now over 160 of them, 29 in France alone. But this month we get a little closer to knowing where the best places to share bikes are, at least in Europe, information that could be useful to city planners and irresistible to urban comparison fiends.
The new rankings come thanks to the German Automobile Club, of all places. The ADAC rankings evaluate European bikeshare systems in four categories: accessibility, information, operation, and bicycles. The conclusions — sharing bikes is good for the planet and could reduce Germany's car use — seem obvious, but the details are more interesting. The short of it: