Free Bike Rental in Zurich

Yesterday I did some mega-shopping on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zürich. To my amazement, I found a lot of sales on at the moment - 50% off lots of things at H&M and there's 30-50% areas at other major stores. I really went out to hit up Zara and I got a few really nicely priced staples there.

While walking back to the Bahnhof, as I was passing Globus, I came across something that I previously deemed an urban legend - free bike rental in Zürich with Züri rollt! After reading the website it sounds all too easy. There are six areas in Zürich that you can rent out for free a bike, bike with child seat, trotti/scooter, skateboard or mountain bike from May to October, just go to:

• Hauptbahnhof - Bikestation South (Sihlpost), daily from 08.00 - 21.30
  
• Hauptbahnhof - Velogate (Landesmuseum), daily from 08:00 - 21:30
  
• Globus City, daily from 10:00-21:30
  
• Opernhaus, (May and June by Bürkliplatz), daily from 10:00-21:30
  
• Oerlikon - Swissôtel , daily from 10:00-21:30 Uhr
• Bahnhof Enge , daily from 10:00-21:30 - after 30. Juni

It's all completely free due to sponsorship - the major sponsor being McDonalds. Go figure - McDonald's wants to have this healthy, happy image now. What better way than to promote bike riding. (I mean, why get rid of burgers and 600 calorie salads when you get just sponsor some bikes, right?)

I appreciate that Zürich offers the free bikes instead of what some other major cities have done, in which I mean offering the sponsored/free rickshaw rides. I think that while the rickshaws are cute and a novelty, you don't get the exercise nor do you get to see as much of the city as you would on a bike. Then again, I couldn't see it being at all safe for the casual biker to bike around Boston or New York. The traffic would kill you in minutes... But other major, safer cities, perhaps Vancouver, yeah that would work, could do the free bike option. Then again, what do I know - perhaps they already do!

The only issue with the free bikes,and maybe it was just because the city was overtaken with Italians and French (2-0) for yesterday's Euro 08 match in Zürich, is that it looked like they were running low on bikes - so get in early to 'rent' your free bike!

The website also mentions that they auction off the bikes and scooters and what not at the end of each season - since they buy them new each year. Here are this year's details:

What: Züri rollt auctions from 11.00 am, Bikes und City-Fun-Tools.
(Previewing starts at 10.00 am)
Where: By Globus-City (on the Pestalozziwiese side)
When: On Saturday, September 27th, 2008 and Saturday, October 25th