The Citybikes in Oslo

A few days ago I was contacted by Loreal Monroe, the Deputy Director of Forum For Urban Design, a non-profit organization based in New York. She asked me if the forum could use one of my pictures published on Flickr. They are going to holding a charette on the feasibility of implementing a bike share program in New York City. Of course they could use one of my pictures, but we also agreed that I would be taking several more pictures for them.

I simply loved the idea, as it is in the spirit of one of the websites I am the webmaster for. GECHS is a core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme. We situate environmental changes within the larger socioeconomic and political contexts that cause them, and which shape the capacity of communities to cope with and respond to change. Our research focuses on the way diverse social processes such as globalization, poverty, disease, and conflict, combine with global environmental change to affect human security.

The photographs will be exhibited on the walls of the Storefront for Art and Architecture on large illustrations of their respective cities. The cities are Barcelona, Stockholm, Oslo, Pamplona, Lyon and Paris. My pictures are of the ClearChannel Adshel‘s Citybikes project in Oslo, which is also running in Bergen, Trondheim and Drammen, in addition to several cities abroad.

In Oslo, Drammen and Bergen – you need to have an electronic subscription card. This card can be purchased for a very low price and is valid for one year at a time (70 NOK). In Trondheim, a subscription card is not necessary in order to make use of the bikes, they can be removed from the bikestands by using a coin. The goal of the Citybikes projects is to reduce pollution of the inner city areas by offering an environment friendly alternative to traditional transport. One of ClearChannel Adshel’s goals is letting the Citybikes help to improve the availability of public transport by “overlapping” the various transport routes in a flexible way. As an example, many tourists are making use of the bikes, and in Oslo and Bergen, the tourist information and several hotels are offering tourist cards for a deposit.

The Citybikes have 4 gears, an adjustable seat and a practical luggage holder. The bikes should be accessible in the designated bikestands, placed in connection with all central transport points, in according to agreements with the municipalities. The bikestands are electronically designed to alert maintenance personnel when necessary.

Do you want to learn more about the New York Bike-Share Project?

Then please visit Storefront for Art and Architecture, 97 Kenmare Street, New York City, July 7-11, 2007.

As a few last words, think about this:

The average amount of gasoline consumed per inhabitant per year is 31 liters in Sub-Saharan Africa, 50 liters in Asia, 427 liters in Western Europe, and 1.637 liters in North America.