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| AMSTERDAM - In 1966,
a group of carhating anarchists persuaded the city to provide bicycles
as a public resource: people could pick up a white bike, or witfiets, from
the sidewalk so long as they also left it on the sidewalk after use. Only
the first half of the idea caught on: before long, there were no white
bicycles to be seen. Now Amsterdam is testing a more hardheaded version
of the witfiets system. The new white bikes, with a distinctive low-slung
design and no removable parts, will be stored in self-locking racks at
15 locations around the city center. To release a bike, users must insert
a smart card "key" and select their destination depot on a computerized
map. Rides will be free on lightly used routes & cost $1 on more popular
ones; dawdlers' cards will be debited 5 cents/minute if they are more than
half an hour late checking in at their destination. |
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