a‘Rekola‘ – an unusual way of bike sharing

‘Rekola’ (could be translated as rebike) is a community bikesharing. It’s a very recent project which started in April 2014 and initiated by two young men from association Rekola.cz. They are using old bicycles which are repaired and painted in pink. It’s for everyone, without any bike stands, just find a bike in one of four Czech cities – Prague, Brno, Olomouc and Pardubice – and go!

How does it work?

Every rider has a mobile phone application where he or she can see the availability of pink bikes near their surroundings. You just come to a bike which has its own code, you write the code in the mobile application which shows you a code for the lock on the bike. And you can go! When you don’t need the bike anymore, you lock it in the nearest place. After locking it, you select in the phone application that you have returned the bike and specify its location.

If you want to use this bikesharing, you can choose to pay one year membership which costs 36 euros, or one month membership for 7 euros.

The pink colour of their bikes is not chosen by chance, it has two important functions. Firstly, potential thefts are limited because pink bike with the logo of Rekola.cz discourages robbers as they cannot sell the bikes easily in any bazaars. Secondly, pink bike is very visible and so it can be easily found on the street. And lastly, the colour of community areas is pink and they believe that re-kola should be for everyone.

What’s more, the project organizers are looking for new bikes and they appreciate any kind of old, dirty, non-working kind of bicycle. It’s a great way of recycling, isn’t it?!