Korea Deploys Nation’s Second Public Bike System

Photo Courtesy www.koreaittimes.com

Earlier this month, Korea  deployed its second third-generation bike-share program in the city of Daejeon.  Operated by the Victek company, the new scheme marks further environmental strides for the Asian nation, with already 200 bikes at 20 stations in place and plans for expansion scheduled to begin next month.    Cyclists pay through the transit card they may already own for the local metro system, or by phone.  The Victek bikes have built-in monitoring systems that charge at base stations and display useful information such as distance traveled and calories burned.

Victek appears a highly qualified leader to help tackle the nation’s environmental concerns associated with the detrimental effects of gasoline-dependent transportation.  The Korean government has recently vowed to update its bicycle infrastructure by adding new built lanes throughout the country.  Most ambitiously, in the next 9 years the nation hopes to complete a bicycle-only 3 meter-wide trail that will circle the entire country, beginning in Seoul and stretching along the Eastern and Western coasts.

The Korean technology firm Initus hopes to join Victek in grabbing a piece of the nation’s bike-share market.  Initus recently displayed its unique RFID technology at the RFID/USN Korea 2009 trade expo.  The Initus system shares the facet of built-in monitors like Victek, but only requires a cable-lock attachment for security, thereby eliminating the need for multiple stations and the many costs associated with building and maintaining such infrastructure.

There also exists a public bike system in the southern city of Changwon, with 430 bikes at 20 stations.  That scheme, entitled NUBIJA from the Korean verb “to move around” and the noun for “bike” and whose acronym is transliterated in English as “Nearby Useful Bike, Interesting Joyful Attraction,” deployed in October of last year with 430 bikes at 20 stations.  With NUBIJA’s 8,000+ registered users, in addition to comparable numbers we’re likely to see in course of the Daejeon program’s development, Korea is well on its way to becoming the Asian leader in bike-sharing.

For more information on the Daejeon program, click here.  For more information on NUBIJA, click here.