On trial in Amsterdam:

Take the shared bike home at night

  ‘OV-fiets @ Home’ is a combination of bicycle and parking place being doubly used, namely by someone living in the city and working elsewhere as well as by someone working in the city and living elsewhere. The commuter bike hardly takes up any of the scarce parking space at the railway station because during daytime it is parked at the company premises of the incoming commuter and at night at  home of the outgoing commuter. The parking place at the railway station serves as a point of exchange for incoming and outgoing bicycles. Rapid exchange of bicycles and compact storage during the rush hour will keep parking space within limits. In this report this new form of bicycle rent is presented and elaborated into a pilot at the railway stations Amsterdam CS and Amsterdam Zuid.




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PT-Bike (OV-fiets) has launched a trial of a new service in November 2008: OV-fiets@home.
The test location is railway station Amsterdam south. Test drivers are clients of OV-fiets who travel from this station by train to their work. They use the OV-bicycle as a means of transport between their home and the station. In this way the bikes are used more intensively and also need less storage space.

For its subscribers OV-bike @ home is attractive because they always have a reserved place in the bicycle shed and they have a well-maintained bike. The test lasts six months and participation is free.

The creators of this new concept are Luud Schimmelpennink and Ronald Haverman. For Amsterdam and Dutch Railway they did an investigation to potential use of OV-bicycle by local commuters.

Many commuters use public transportation to bike from the station to their work.
Result is that the bicycle is rented during daytime. Between 17.30 pm and 8.30 the bikes are less often used. The idea is to OV-bikes now also in that period to continue.  By commuters in the morning to drive bikes and evening from the station to house bicycles. Most commuters to travel now to the station on their own bike, which is based at the station.

Amsterdam municipality welcomed the plans of OV-bike because OV-fiets@home offers multiple solutions simultaneously.

OV-bikes can be used at least twice a day. In addition, OV-fiets@home contributes to the solution of the bicycle parking problem at stations.