It's Free!

Sort of.
Well it is, as long as you are quick about it.
Kailua is getting rent a bikes!
This was reported a while back when still in the planning stages and I thought it was a good idea, depending on where they installed the bike racks.
Well it's no longer in the planning stages:



See here.
The comments below are interesting too.
The link for the B-cycle site is here.
I can hardly contain my excitement!
Oh wait.
I already have a bike.
Okay, I have three bikes but you get my drift.
The thing is, I don't know what it means for the people who already ride.
More roving roadblocks?
Don't get me wrong, I dig bikes and anything to get people to ride more is got to be a good thing.
Right?
I suppose it depends on who exactly is doing the riding.
Since Kailua is a low key tourist mecca, soon to have it's very own Target store, I gotta put my money on gangs of visitors heading toward the beach and where ever it is visitors go.
By visitors, I don't mean my sister coming over the hill from Honolulu.
I mean hard currency spending individuals that usually drive on the other side of the road in their native countries.
Suddenly, this doesn't sound so good.
The rent a bicycle thing, I mean.
Of course the target is tourists.
The placement of the bike racks, well at least one of them, is visitor central.
Boy, I'm sure that makes the dudes who rent bikes over by the beach mucho happy.
That's right!
Kailua already has a couple of places that rent bikes to the touristanista types.
I'm not even gonna talk about the Segway dudes.
Seeing as how this a charter thing, I guess Kailua fits the bill.
Want to start off small, then if it works out, expand into...
Waikiki!
Where the real rent a bike dollars are.
Wait Mr. Flat Tire, what about the locals.
They will rent the bikes too.
Penetration into the local cycling community will be tough, for like moi, they got bikes too.
I think the bottom line is that those who bike, bike, those that don't, won't.
Not until gas hits like six bucks a gallon.
The thing is, no one is going to walk to the rack to rent a bike then, drop it off and walk back home.
I mean, I may ride my bike over there and rent a bike, then drop it off and ride my bike home, but I wouldn't hoof it over there to rent one.
Always with the negative waves Moriarty, why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
Okay, okay.
In the big picture, more bikes means more awareness.
For the motor vehicle drivers, I mean.
If there are more bikes on the road, drivers become accustomed to sharing the road with cyclists and that, is a good thing no matter how it gets done.
The really great thing is that the first half hour is free!
The bike rental, I mean.