Milan has had a bikeshare system since 2008 and is now up to 1400 bikes and 120 stations. They are impressive bikes; instead of chain drives, they have a shaft drive. This is theoretically less maintenance and risk of a customer getting their pants caught in a chain.
The bikes are evidently not used for recreation; on Sunday, every rack was full and I never saw one in use. However at 7:00 AM on Monday morning, the streets were full of people on yellow bikes going to work.
The bike stations are in a really tight cluster in the central part of town; they are of little use for commuting. Wikipedia notes that the system was supposed to be 200 stations and 3000 bikes; It could certainly use a bit of geographic expansion. More at BikeMi
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Hooray for bike shares! I like to travel, and I often bring my ride along for the trip. With more places implementing bike share programs, it's nice to know I'll have the option to travel bike free if I'm planning just city rides and not a major excursion.
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