Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson has a cool blog post about his recent travels to Paris and how they have a city-wide bike system called Velib.
It works a lot like a public transportation system. There are daily, weekly, and monthly cards. You can get a card right at the kiosk. Then you enter in your card number and then pick what number bike you want. When you pull the bike out of the rack, it’s yours.
I’ve lived in Washington DC for almost 2 years now without a car. I’ve depended on the Washington Metro system, my feet, or the kindness of my friends and their cars to get me around DC.
I could probably just buy a bike but it seems like there are only distinct times I’d need it.
It seems like this Zip-car like bike system would be amazing.
Would any of you use this?
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 
Check out http://www.smartbikedc.com
Any system that promotes bicycle use in DC would be a good thing. The city is so clogged with cars that it *should* seem ripe for bicycle transportation, but in reality, everyone seems to simply pay $4000 for a parking space while never really leaving it (or if they do, only traveling a few miles and back). A poor solution. Hopefully alternatives like bicycles will gain in popularity with the rising price of gasoline.
Brock beat me to the punch. It’s already here. There’s one in the works for Portland, and other cities are considering it too.
While I’m excited of the idea, DC never struck me as a particularly bike-friendly city, despite how many I see each day.
Either way, I really should learn to ride a bike one of these days.
Or a logical street system …
@Brock: Thanks so much dude. You rock!
That would be pretty sweet!