Another bike-sharing scheme, City Bike Szeged was announced yesterday in Szeged, south Hungary, a city of 130.000. A private vendor company in the region received appr. 120.000 EUR EU-funds for the development of the system hardware which will be tested live in the city as a pilot project, Looking at the pictures it is obvious that the "good old" Hungarian engineers could not put the hammer down if we are talking about innovation which is on a conspicuously modest level in this case. The design of the rough bicycle comes from Neuzer. At least the docking mechanism is different this time: it looks like an innovative(?) mix of the technology used by Clear Channel and that of the cheapest low-end systems from Spain and Italy. Although a user test hasn't been yet possible, after a closer look to the photos about the equipment an inevitable question emerges: Does a country like Hungary really needs more than one company to start public funded R/D on a field where competition is sky-high and most of the competitors (even in the region) had started years earlier?
My approach is to celebrate any developments regarding bike-sharing in Hungary. But how can one remain proud when City Bike Szeged promotes itself as a service while - just like EBI, the other Hungarian bike-sharing system already in operation - it is obviously not more than a pilot project. A live experiment on the poor citizens of Szeged. I can state without any cynism that this is a worst practice. This approach (funded from public money) depreciates the prestige and the possible rising of bike-sharing systems in the region.
But let's try to stay positive and enthusisatic! City Bike Szeged at least has a website (as EBI still doesn't)...featuring a primitively photo shopped picture stolen from the big brother Vélib on the opening page. May the public funds were not enough to finance a proper photo shooting? Fail.
My approach is to celebrate any developments regarding bike-sharing in Hungary. But how can one remain proud when City Bike Szeged promotes itself as a service while - just like EBI, the other Hungarian bike-sharing system already in operation - it is obviously not more than a pilot project. A live experiment on the poor citizens of Szeged. I can state without any cynism that this is a worst practice. This approach (funded from public money) depreciates the prestige and the possible rising of bike-sharing systems in the region.
But let's try to stay positive and enthusisatic! City Bike Szeged at least has a website (as EBI still doesn't)...featuring a primitively photo shopped picture stolen from the big brother Vélib on the opening page. May the public funds were not enough to finance a proper photo shooting? Fail.