Self-Service Bike Rental
You might have seen them at some railway sstations in Germany. Self-rental bike from a company owned by “Deutsche Bahn AG”. The metropolis Ruhr now get’s it’s own network of bike stations all across the 11 larger cities. On June 18th, 2010 the first self-service bike stations have been started in Dortmund. Further stations and cities will follow.
The network’s name is metrorad combining the German words Metropole (metropolis) and Rad (from Zweirad oder Fahrrad). It is run by Berlin based company nextbike. Rental is easy: Just call the phone number printed on the bike. After successful booking you’ll get the code for the lock. When returning at the same or another bike station, just phone again. The price is cheap: 1 € per hour with a maximum of 5 € per day.
The best thing is that you can return the bike another station. You don’t have to return to you origin of booking. The idea behind the system is to add something to bridge hole of mobility in the region’s public transport sector.
I see another advantage as well: The network of bike stations can be used for individual or small group bike tour through the region. Once the network is completely establish you will be able to start a bike tour with metrorad form Bochum main station to the Ruhr where the railway museum is located. At the station near the railway museum (Bochum-Dahlhausen) shall be another metrorad station. You can also start form there or continue your tour towards Essen where are more stations. You won’t have to organize a round trip or take you bike with you.
There are many route to explore. www.metrorad.de contains sites in English.
Recent Comments