Apparently successful ‘sharing bicycle system’ in Changwon

I was in Changwon on the weekend and noticed many people on similar bikes.  Changwon has its own ‘sharing bicycle system’ -my previous article article here- and it is doing well.

In my previous post on bike-sharing systems, I suggested that Busan would not be a good place for one due to its steep mountain slopes (I was corrected in the comments and learned that Haeundae, at least, has one).  Changwon is a lot flatter but almost too spread out to be a good place for bike-commuting.

Changwon is (locally) famous as a planned city and it is well-organized with a consistent gridwork of streets and great bike paths along the side of most major streets.  Those bike paths are even well-shaded under broadleaved trees.  However, in my visits, almost every street seems to be six-lanes wide + bike paths and nothing feels close.  Timmins, Ontario, Canada was famous as Canada’s largest city in geographical area even though its population is still under 50,000.  It was just very spread out.  Changwon has that feel for me.

Still, I am happy to see the program exists in Korea and hope I can find an opportunity to use it.