Bicyclists gung-ho over sharing system

The concept, currently on a three-month trial, will start providing bicycles to the registered public on November 1.

While the first set of registrations closed on Thursday, Bangalore-based Kerberon, the company holding the project patent, allows only 100 registered people a month to use its bicycles.

“This means that on November 22 and December 22, we will open registrations for 100 other people. All the registered people will be sent smart cards to their residence,” said Syed Haseeb Arfath, Managing Director of Kerberon.

The bicycle sharing system is all about solving the problem of last-mile connectivity. With the Reach-1 of Metro becoming operational, passengers, especially single men and women, can benefit from the project.

Currently, three bicycles are docked at three stations — each with a maximum capacity of six bicycles.

Smart cards all the way
Hop into a Metro train with a smard card, get off at any station and hop onto a BMTC feeder bus using the Metro bus card, and then ride a bicycle around the Central Business District using a smart card. Commuting within the city centre has never been simpler and devoid of hard cash.

The smart cards provided for ATCAG (or Automated Tracking and Control of Green Assets) post-pilot period will be Rs 500 and valid for a year.

From the last week of January 2012, when the project will be in full swing, the cards will allow riders to use bicycles for free for one hour every day. Says Syed: “Every additional hour, we will charge Rs 10. But that is only because we need to meet operational costs and ensure that bicycles are not stolen. These charges will be deducted from the balance amount in the card.”

All the usage details will be sent via SMS to the bicyclist’s mobile phone.

Kerberon, which filed a patent for ATCAG as early as 2009, has proposed the project in three phases. Phase I involves M G Road and Jayanagar. The latter area will have 36 docking stations and the CBD around M G Road shall have 26 (including the present three).

Each station will have a card-reading machine and six bicycles. An officer will also be posted to ensure that in case of any station having fewer number of bicycles at any given time, bicycles will be borrowed from other stations.

Highlights
* Locations: Fame Shankar Nag theatre, Bible Society, War Memorial
* Capacity: Three bicycles each station.
* Fare: Nil (Till January 26, 2012)
* Time: 9 am to 5 pm (Return bicycle at any stand before 5 pm)