Vending Machines: Bike Vending Machine Looks Cool, Dispenses Goofy Bikes – Gizmodo

By Parrothead Jeff, on 15 August 2007

Another cool find on Gizmodo !

Bicycle rental vending machines sound like a wonderful idea for many urban environments and tourist areas such as National Parks. The idea is simple – pay your money, ride the bike, return it at another machine. Gizmodo complains that the bikes won’t enhance your cool factor, but I don’t think that’s a concern in all reality. Actually, the unique appearance of the bikes would tend to enhance recognition of ownership and encourage returns in my ever so humble opinion .

The only major problems I can see stemming from this idea aside from non-returns are the lack of helmets for those who are safety conscious (I learned my lesson the hard way – head into curb ) and lawsuits by people who injure themselves on these bikes .