The Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic has launched a bike sharing program. The program even has a great acronym! Gear up and Ride, or GEAR, is the brainchild of Dave Jasperson (pictured), Mayo’s coordinator for surgery and radiology in their Livewell Program.

The program is only in pilot phase at this time and there is no information about GEAR on Mayo’s website, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports that numerous employees are supportive of the program.

Photo credit: Ken Klotzbach, Rochester Post-Bulletin

Today, Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) announced a plan to offer bicycle rentals around the U.S. House of Representatives office buildings. The bicycle rental program will be similar to ones that have been recently implemented in Paris, Barcelona, and other European cities.

Blumenauer started the Congressional Bike Caucus last year. The Caucus currently has 164 Members, including 118 Democrats, 45 Republicans (Sue Kelly (R-NY) is the Co-Chair), and 1 Independent. Members of the caucus represent 43 States and the District of Columbia.

To start, Blumenauer is launching a pilot program for bike sharing on Capitol Hill. Today, as part of the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C., Blumenauer announced Wheels4Wellness, a program to provide up to 30 bicycles around the Capitol Hill complex for U.S. House employees to check out.

Blumenauer worked out the details of the system with Dan Beard, the chief administrative officer of the U.S. House. The House will select a vendor to provide bikes on self-service racks throughout the House campus. Employees who register for the program can check out the bikes for short trips.

Representative Blumenauer on his commuter bicycle (Photo Credit: The Washington Post)

Bike-sharing programs take advantage of new technology — using smart cards or cell phone codes for riders to check out bikes from bike shelters. They’re funded by advertising, user fees or government subsidies. Some rental bikes even feature GPS units for navigating city streets.

Read more about it from our Source: The Oregonian

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According to NPR and others, including bike radar, Paris’ success with their bike rental program, Velib, has inspired other cities to move ahead with bike rental plans of their own.

Barcelona’s bike rental program Bicing has been bankrolled by communications giant Clear Channel, which offers advertising space on the sides of the bike rental stations. With over 100 rental stations spaced throughout the city, this appears to be a win-win for the city.

What an excellent idea. Bike rentals seem to address multiple concerns in regards to bicycle commuting:

Bikes can be stored in secure locations when not in use;
Novices have a very low entry cost to at least try out the concept; and
Cities win because, by outsourcing the whole affair, there is almost no investment or overhead to deal with

Let’s hope that these systems really do come to a city near you!

Photo courtesy of Getty Images via Bike Radar.

Read more from our sources: NPR and Bike Radar.

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Duke University is pedaling an exciting new sustainability program! In an effort to green-up the Durham, N.C. campus, the Duke Sustainability Office recently launched Duke Bikes, a bike rental program for students and staff.

All that is required to rent a bike through the program is a Duke ID card. One-speed and three-speed Trek Cruiser bikes are available for rent through the program.

So far, the program appears to be successful, in that the bikes are being rented by students and staff.

Velocommuter will do a follow-up story on this program in a few months in which we gauge the programs success.

Ride on, Blue Devils!

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