How to use bike shares on your next international vacation

Bike shares, which make publicly owned bikes available for rent, offer cheap, convenient travel around cities and are increasingly popular in the United States. Philadelphia  debuted its bike share program, Indego, in April, and in its first six months it reported 308,000 rides.

While renting a bike might not be an exciting prospect in a city currently experiencing below freezing temperatures, it sounds lovely in a place like Barcelona or Rome. And if you're inclined to get out of the country, the travel app Moovit has just added information that will show you where bikes are available in more than 110 cities. A recent article by Jen Kinney on Next City highlighted Moovit's new feature. Philadelphia's bike share is among the cities included on the app.

Moovit is joining the other digital resources that include bike share in their recommendations on how to get around, said Aaron Ritz, Complete Streets Implementation Manager with the city and one of the people responsible for Indego. He cited Transit, RideScout, CityMapper as other travel apps that provide bike share info. A personal favorite web site that provides detailed bicycle information is Oliver O'Brien's World Bike Share Map at http://bikes.oobrien.com/, he said.

When talking to proponents of bike share, they often bring up their hope that bike sharing can be as much a part of a city's public transportation options as a subway or buses. And they note that bikes offer a flexibility no other mode can match. If you've done some international travel, you've probably had the experience of wanting to see a sight that is just off the beaten path but not having the time. Biking can get you to those out of the way spots faster. The fact that bike shares are in the mix on travel apps and web sites says a lot about how successful they've become at changing our ideas of how best to get around.