Christophe Stoll, aka Nitrada, co-founder of precious, a design consultancy based in Hamburg, Germany. http://precious-forever.com
Photo by Yukino Miyazawa
I just came back from using Stadtrad Hamburg the first time. It's a pretty new rent-a-bike service here in Hamburg, offering around 1000 bikes at currently 71 stations all over town. There are a dozen bikes per station and anyone can instantly rent a bike with a touchscreen terminal, calling a number or using your smartphone instead.
It is a good example for connecting a digital service to the real world. No advanced techno-magic, no circumstantial visit-our-website-and-print-out-your-data disillusion – it's just there and works. There's an iPhone app you can download for free (I'm sure there's also something available for other platforms), enter your credentials once and then handle the full process of renting a bike. It tells you where the next station is, how many bikes are available and let's you unlock a bicycle of your choice on location by providing you with a 4 digit pin code you only need to enter into a tiny touchscreen that is mounted on the bike.
When I first heard about the service, I was a bit sceptical – I guess we're just used to find a catch in such things. But today I'm quite excited about a few aspects they have done just right for an urban mobility offering:
It is also a good example for a service, or product being an advertising campaign itself. You can see the stations and bikes pretty much everywhere and you hear a lot of satisfied customers as well as good press, so there's effective word-of-mouth recommendation going on. Which in turn casts a pretty good light on the Hamburg senate and even their operational partner Deutsche Bahn, the German railway carrier, a brand that is not very liked among customers.
