P2P bike rental

This isn't the first system to take a technological approach to bike rental, but the program implemented in Lyon, France has so far grown extremely quickly and been more successful than other programs at preventing theft. Users have to present a credit card to be able to rent a bike as well as put down a 150 euro deposit, which gets cashed if they keep the bike out more than 24 hours. The fee for the service itself is 1 euro per hour, but there's no charge for the first 30 minutes, which makes the majority of trips (approximately 90 percent) free. When a subscriber returns a bike, a microchip exchanges information with the elctronic bike racks to identify the bike and the subscriber as well as in/out times. The bikes themselves have sensors that report back on any issues with brakes, lights, tire pressure and gears, so the bike can be removed from circulation and stations can send out mechanics. Other cities in Europe are starting to eye the system for possible adoption, but we sort of doubt the U.S. is going to jump to be an early adopter on this one.