SPOTTED #20: Call a Bike

in travel •  8 years ago  (edited)

One of my favorite methods of moving through a city: Bicycle 

If you ever have been to some of the bigger German cities you might have noticed these red colored bicycles. The company behind it was called Call a bike but went bankrupt around 15 years ago before being acquired by Deutsche Bahn, the German Railways Corporation. I was a beta tester for Call a bike back in the days when they didn't have Stations but could park the Bike anywhere in the City. They are offering a semi-flatrate or per Minute payments for their bikes these days. Flatrate is around 30 Euros per year (first 30 Minutes are free and you can rent to 2 bikes with one account) or you pay per per minute which is around 2 Euros per Hour. 

Call a Bike Station in Hamburg

Each Station has a NFC panel and you can unlock the bike you want to rent by just swiping your NFC card

You can unlock the bike by phone, app or NFC Card, if you open it by app or phone you have to punch in a 6 digit code into the bikes Touchscreen Display

There is similar concepts in Paris, London, Rome, New York and more cities

I like the Call a Bike Bicycles best as the bikes are very nice to ride. I liked the concept better when you were allowed to drop-off the bikes at any point in the city but after talking to the Head of R&D of Call a Bike at Deutsche Bahn, I was told that collecting the bikes from all over the cities was not profitable and they would rather use Stations for rental and return. 

Have you used Citybikes somewhere in the world ???

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There is no better way to explore than hiking or cycling. In Germany there is a real e-bike hype which even allows to manage large distances and even mountains are no problem. Another advantage is that you stay active and you can select the pace you like. Great thing. Thanks for your post :-)

I need to try these ebikes. but well I think normal bikes work for me too ;)

Of course normal bikes do. Just give it a try - you'll be surprised and love it.

@knozaki2015 oh you are near Tony
we have this here, too
It's handy, I want to try the Segway in Italy and Moscow, though.
btw, thank you for getting back at me in the chat, I've sent you a reply and another question. Have a happy holidays knozaki!

I read another post they have something similar in China. first hour free and pay with a phone app.

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