Turin ToBike

Turin’s bike sharing scheme has been running now for nearly three months and is proving to be a great success. At the moment 116 of the projected 130 bike stations around the city are open with some 1200 bikes available.

This is a great way to enjoy the inner city as Turin’s central area is fairly flat and you can also ride along the riverbank paths of the Po river, past Castles, Monuments, Botanic Gardens and Parks.

How it works: To get a bike, you’ll first need to register online at www.tobike.it website, choose a temporary or annual subscription and provide your credit card information. Once your card is approved, you will be e-mailed a user code and password to be used at any of Turin’s bike stations.

The system requires you to prepay a subscription of a minimum of 5 euro, to cover possible overage charges, which is not reimbursed, but will be recognised for future usage.

Costs: Daily: 2 euro, Weekly: 5 euro, Annual: 20 euro

As with a lot of similar bike sharing schemes the price for the first half hour is free, the second 80 cents, the third 1.50 euro and the fourth and following half hours are 2,00 euro each.

Finally:

• Remember Italians drive on the right, so be aware, careful and please keep your eyes open particularly when in traffic or at junctions or intersections.
• Don’t talk on your cell phone whilst riding, it’s dangerous, especially when you are surrounded by Italian drivers!
• Don’t eat and/or drink whilst riding, this is Italy, finish that snack before you get on your bike, stop, sit down, relax, have a picnic in the park and please try and look cool!

and to get an idea of how Italian’s drive, check out the first couple of minutes of this funny video showing the difference between Italians and other Europeans!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0ZdIfCR1uE[/youtube]

For more information on Turin’s bike sharing scheme, check out the ToBike website which is only in Italian at the moment.