Cyclocity

Today I was heading out to visit a friend, so instead of taking the metro here, I thought I'd grab a bike from my nearest rank (literally a minute's walk from here), cycle to Arts-Loi, and hop on a metro there. In hindsight, this wasn't really the best idea since I'm apparently more unfit than I initially thought, the route was entirely up hill, and starting to ride a bike for the first time in 10 years on one of the busiest roads in the city centre is quite daunting.

I walked over to Anneessens preparing to be confused by the bike rank. At each rank, there's a pillar with a touch screen as an aide for renting the bicycles. Subscribers simply need to use their card, their pin-code, and select a bike. Plebs like myself, however, have to buy a short-term subscription on the spot with a credit card (that must have a chip), which is then valid for 7-days. Surprisingly the entire process is extremely straight-forward and the instructions are very clear in French, even at my level of comprehension. I later realised English was also available… Oh well.

After registration, the system reserved €150 on my credit card in case I run off with the bike — Fair enough. I received a receipt, and my temporary subscription card (with a mysteriously large DataMatrix barcode), picked a bike from the rank and started riding! The whole process only took 1–2 minutes.

The system includes two features I thought were interesting: Firstly, you have 45 seconds to grab a bike, or select another one if the one you originally selected is damaged; secondly, if there are no bikes available at that particular station, you can ask the terminal how many bikes are at nearby stations and where those stations are.

At Arts-Loi, returning the bike was made very simple by the clear instructions both on the bike and on the dock, although I don't know how you could go wrong. The bike comes with a flat metal lock that docks with the small stations and contains an electronic identification tag so they know you've returned. Sliding the bike's tab horizontally into the station causes the station to beep happily, and locks the bike in place.

The bikes themselves are relatively simple, but do come with the usual accoutrements of a bell, safety reflectors, a small flip-down stand, a welded-on bike lock for stowing the bike away from a station (again with detailed instructed), and a basket on the front. Ultimately, the design is a bit wanky, but very sturdy and certainly looks well maintained for something that always lives outside. The bikes are heavy and remind me of my old BMX bike.

Disappointingly, the system doesn't have bike ranks in places I would find convenient. If stations existed out near the office, for example, I would be inspired to cycle there. Alternatively, there are no ranks out near some of the woodland areas around Brussels.

I have a week to try this thing out and consider if I'll get myself a yearly subscription; I'd consider getting a bike of my own if I actually had somewhere to put it! I think the system is good, and if it becomes more wide-spread it could be very successful here as it has been in other cities.