Bike in Bath

Spotted by Prof Michael Batty, our director here at CASA, while in Bath at the weekend:

There is very little information on the scheme, on the Internet. As far as I can tell, it was announced as far back as 2008, the scheme is powered by Bicincitta (“Bike in City”) who run numerous small Italian schemes, and there is another (local) operator who is also trialling an automated electric bike scheme at the same time – probably useful considering Bath’s steep hills. The scheme appears to be a prototype and is funded by an EU project called Civitas. Local politics may have got in the way of the scheme’s rollout.

I don’t know whether the scheme has been and gone, whether it’s about to launch or whether it’s in operation now – although Mike didn’t spot any Bicincitta bikes, or indeed any other docking stations, while walking around the centre of the city. This page states that the scheme will start in “Spring 2011″ with four stands and 35 bikes.

As far as I can tell there is no website for the scheme, let alone an online map showing where the bikes are. Bicincitta do have a website showing online maps for all their Italian schemes.

Bath’s got some more interesting cycling developments underway – the Two Tunnels project is progressing – eventually two long ex-rail tunnels will be opened for cycling, one of them over a mile long. This latter project at least will be a reason for me to visit Bath if it does open next year – on my own bike.