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Peddling the town’s goods: Bikes join kicksleds in local ridesharing program

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There’s a few more rules, but at least you’ll know where to find them – and not have to worry about someone else swiping your ride home while you’re running a quick errand.

Fifteen “citybikes” arrived in Longyearbyen this week and can be borrowed free from Visit Svalbard. Unlike the “kicksledsharing” program the tourism agency started last winter, where the sleds were simply scattered around town and available immediately to anyone – perhaps to the chagrin of a previous borrower who abandoned it for a moment – users must sign for the bikes and are responsible for returning them in good condition.

“This is kind of a trustful program,” said Trine Krystad, who is managing the sustainable transport program. “We will come to an agreement if there is is trouble.”

The bikes, intended for short-term use and not suitable for trails, are available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and come with helmets, reflective vests and locks. Users must agree to accept all safety responsibilities.

Funding for the bikes and kicksleds came from a 200,000-kroner grant from the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund, with the bikes accounting for about half of that amount, Trine said.

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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