I Don't Know About This

So today, I was on my merry way, looking to give my new Unobtainable Lightness of Roundness a shake down cruise when I turned the corner and was caught by surprise.
It took a while but it's finally here:



Yes Virginia, the rent a bike kiosk is open for business!
This B cycle thingy was mentioned in the newspaper a while back and they finally got it going.
There's an automatic rent a thingy that takes credit cards:



The bike are made by Trek and they look pretty heavy but they got front baskets and some Grip Shifters and I think Nexus hubs:




Looks like a drum brake up front:



Seems like a heavy duty(boat anchor) bicycle:



The concept seems like a good idea except for a couple of things.
The person in the picture above was going to rent one of them bicycles, until she looked good at how much it cost.
Five bucks gets you a half hour free, with additional half hours going for two fifty.
That's like seven fifty for an hour.
Then the other kiosk, which looked basically the same:



Is only about a quarter of a mile away:



I mean I can walk a quarter of a mile in like ten minutes, maybe faster!
Or, you can just bring the bike back to where you got it.
Which brings me to the I Don't Know About This part.
Let's say I'm a touristy type person, and maybe I want to hit up the World's Greatest Beach, so maybe I want to rent a bicycle so that I can take my beach mat and beach towel and sunscreen and whatever with me.
Do I really want to lay on the burning sand knowing I got a bicycle burning dimes in the parking lot?
How am I supposed to lock that thing up?
Say if I want to check out a store or go and eat or something?
From where that kiosk is, it's only maybe a mile or so to the sand and surf and I gotta say, it's a pretty nice walk.
Okay, there were some bicycles missing, like around ten of them so there must be folks out there riding these things around, right?
Being the curious person I am, instead of heading home after my ride, I decided to go out and do a Quest For the Rent A Bikes!
Which turned out to be fruitless for not one of them was spotted.
I gotta say, it's going to take a lot more than one of them Treks to make me fork up like ten bucks.
I mean for that kind of cash, I better be riding like Cancellara's bike or something:



Hey wait a just a minute!
That one is not for rent!
Well, maybe.