Bixi Bicycle Sharing, Now in the US

The Public Bike System Company announced over the weekend that the BIXI bicycle sharing system will expand in the US, to encompass the cities of Washington (District of Columbia) and Arlington (Virginia), as well as the Washington State University campus.

The sharing system, first presented one year ago, will see some 1,100 Bixi bikes distributed to some 114 spots in the aforementioned locations. An extra 30 bikes are reserved for the Washington State University.

"We would like to extend our most heartfelt congratulations to the Public Bike System Company for this new BIXI deployment in the American capital," Jacynthe Cote, CEO of Rio Tinto Alcan, BIXI’s main partner, said in a statement.

"Ever since BIXI was launched last week, this Québec innovation has been a global success story and we are delighted to see that aluminum stands out as the material of choice in the making of a sustainable means of transportation that contributes to the decrease of greenhouse gas emission linked to urban transportation.”

Bixi was first introduced in Montreal last year. By August 2009, over 1 million trips have been made using the bicycle sharing system. For the future, the Public Bike System Company plans to expand in even more cities and university campuses.

“The business plan we presented was realistic, feasable and economically viable. This is what I believed yesterday and what today’s announcements prove,” Roger Plamondon, Public Bike System Company chairman added.