Helsinki City Transport (HKL) is to start negotiating a contract for the supply of 500 city-bikes with the outdoor advertising corporation JCDecaux. The bikes could be put into use already in July.
To reduce vandalism and thefts (a problem with earlier incarnatiions of the city-bikes), people would have to use a travel card or a credit card in order to free a bike from the stand.
In this way it would be known who is using a given bike at any given moment. Mini-computers at stands would monitor the pickups and drop-offs of the bikes.
There would also be a time limit of up to three hours for the use of bikes, after which the user would have to pay a rental fee, in much the same manner as limited parking at shopping malls, for instance.
JCDecaux has offered to supply HKL with free-to-use city-bikes, and in compensation for the bike system the Public Works Department would give JCDecaux a number of new advertising spots.
The new stock of city-owned bicycles would be totally funded by means of advertisements.
In other words, cityscape advertising would increase, but according to the plan, no advertisements would be placed on the frames or wheels of the bikes themselves.
