How Dutch engineer Luud Schimmelpennink helped to devise urban bike-sharing schemes

荷兰工程师Luud Schimmelpennink是如何帮助设计城市自行车共享计划的

A    The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a summer's day in Amsterdam in 1965. Provo, the organisation that came up with the idea, was a group of Dutch activists who wanted to change society. They believed the scheme, which was known as the Witte Fietsenplan, was an answer to the perceived threats of air pollution and consumerism. In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small number of used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of cars and inviting people to use the white bikes. The bikes were then left unlocked at various locations around the city, to be used by anyone in need of transport.

A    城市共享单车计划的最初想法可以追溯到1965年阿姆斯特丹的一个夏日。提出这一想法的组织Prov0是由一群想要改变社会的荷兰活动人士组成的。他们相信这项“小自车“计划是对空气污染和消费主义威胁的解决方案。在阿姆斯特丹市中心，他们把少量的二手自行车漆成白色。他们还分发宣传手册来描述汽车的危害，并邀请人们使用白色自行车。后来，这些自行车被留在城市各处，没有上锁，可供任何需要交通运输的人使用。

B    Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and cycles in Amsterdam, was heavily involved in the original scheme. He recalls how the scheme succeeded in attracting a great deal of attention - particularly when it came to publicising Provo's aims - but struggled to get off the ground. The police were opposed to Provo's initiatives and almost as soon as the white bikes were distributed around the city, they removed them. However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-sharing schemes in general, this was just the beginning. 'The first Witte Fietsenplan was just a symbolic thing,' he says. 'We painted a few bikes white, that was all. Things got more serious when I became a member of the Amsterdam city council two years later.'

B    Luud Schimmelpennink是一位荷兰工业工程师，他目前仍然居住在阿姆斯特丹，骑车出行，他曾积极参与了这项最初的计划。他回忆起这项计划是如何成功地吸引了大众的注意力--尤其是在宣传Provo的目标时--在起步执行时却举步维艰。警察反对Probo的倡议，几乎在白色自行车刚分发到城市各处时，他们就把车移走了。然而，对于Schimmelpennink本人和共享单车计划来说，这仅仅是一个开始。“第一个“小白车“计划只是一个象征性的东西，“他说。“我们把几辆自行车漆成了白色，仅此而已。两年后，当我成为阿姆斯特丹市议会的一员时，一切才变得更加郑重其事。

C    Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate Witte Fietsenplan to the city council. 'My idea was that the municipality of Amsterdam would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city, for everyone to use,' he explains. 'I made serious calculations. It turned out that a white bicycle - per person, per kilometer - would cost the municipality only 10% of what it contributed to public transport per person per kilometre.' Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected the plan. 'They said that the bicycle belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future for the car,' says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the least discouraged.

C    Schimmelpennink抓住这个机会向市议会提出了一个更详细的“小白车”计划。“我当时的想法是阿姆斯特丹市政府可以在全市范围内发放1万辆白色自行车，供所有人使用。“他解释说。“我作了认真的计算。结果是，一辆白色自行车--每人行驶一公里--只会花费市政当局投入到个人乘坐公共交通出行一公里费用的10%。“然而，市议会一致否决了这一计划。“他们说自行车是属于过去的。他们看到了汽车的美好未来，“Schimmelpennink说。但他对此一点也不气馁。

D    Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike- sharing, and in the mid-90s, two Danes asked for his help to set up a system in Copenhagen. The result was the world's first large-scale bike-share programme. It worked on a deposit: 'You dropped a coin in the bike and when you returned it, you got your money back.' After setting up the Danish system, Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the Netherlands - and this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch Ministry of Transport. 'Times had changed,' he recalls. 'People had become more environmentally conscious, and the Danish experiment had proved that bike-sharing was a real possibility' A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched in 1999in Amsterdam. However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it cost one guilder per trip and payment was made with a chip card developed by the Dutch bank Postbank. Schimmelpennink designed conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks which could be opened with the chip card - the plan started with 250 bikes, distributed over five stations.

D    Schimmelpennink从未放弃对共享单车的信念，在90年代中期，两个丹麦人请他帮忙在哥本哈根建立一个系统。结果这成为了世界上第一个大规模的共享单车项目。使用它需要付押金:“你往自行车里投一枚硬币，当你把它还回去时，你就可以把钱拿回来了。“在丹麦建立了系统之后，Schimmelpennink决定回荷兰再碰一碰运气，而这一次，他成功地引起了荷兰交通部的兴趣。“时代变了。“他回忆说，“人们变得更有环保意识，而且在丹麦的尝试证明了共享单车是切实可行的。“1999年，一项新的“小白车“计划在阿姆斯特丹启动。不过，骑白色自行车不再是免费的了;每趟骑行收费1荷兰盾，使用时通过荷兰邮政银行开发的芯片卡进行付款。Schimmelpennink设计了醒目又坚固的白色自行车，锁在特殊的车架上，可以用芯片卡开锁--刚开始计划投用250辆单车，被安放在五个站点。

E    Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked alongside Schimmelpennink. 'I remember when we were testing the bike racks, he announced that he had already designed better ones. But of course, we had to go through with the ones we had.' The system, however, was prone to vandalism and theft. 'After every weekend there would always be a couple of bikes missing,' Molenaar says. 'I really have no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be recognised as white bikes.' But the biggest blow came when Postbank decided to abolish the chip card, because it wasn't profitable. 'That chip card was pivotal to the system,' Molenaar says. 'To continue the project we would have needed to set up another system, but the business partner had lost interest.'

E    特奥·莫莱纳尔是该项目的系统设计师，他与Schimmelpennink共事。“记得我们测试自行车架的时候，他说他已经设计出了更好的。但是，我们肯定要先做好我们现有的车架。不过，这个系统很容易遭到破坏和盗窃。莫莱纳尔说:“每个周末过后，总会有几辆自行车不见了。我真的不知道人们用它们还能做什么，因为人们一眼就能认出它们是白色单车。“但最大的打击来自邮政银行决定取消芯片卡因为它没有盈利。莫莱纳尔表示:“这张芯片卡对整个系统至关重要。为了继续这个项目，我们需要建立另一个系统，但商业伙伴已经失去了兴趣。

F    Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but - characteristically - not for long, In 2002 he got a call from the French advertising corporation JC Decaux, who wanted to setup his bike -sharing scheme in Vienna. 'That went really well. After Vienna, they setup a system in Lyon. Then in 2007, Paris followed. That was a decisive moment in the history of bike-sharing.' The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian bike-sharing programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities all over the world to set up their own schemes, all modelled on Schimmelpennink's. `It's wonderful that this happened,' he says. 'But financially I didn't really benefit from it, because I never filed for a patent.'

F    Schimmelpennink很失望，但他的失望并没有持续太久。2002年，他接到法国广告公司德高的电话，他们想在维也纳建立他的共享单车计划。“这次进行得很顺利。继维也纳之后，他们又在里昂建立了一个系统。然后2007年，巴黎紧随其后。那是共享单车历史上的决定性时刻。“巴黎共享单车计划取得了意想不到的巨大成功，目前已拥有2万多辆自行车，这促使了世界各地的城市纷纷效仿Schimmelpennink，建立自己的共享单车计划。他说:“发生这样的事真是太好了。但在经济上，我并没有真正从中受益，因为我从未申请过专利。

G    In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with Copenhagen, it is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals in the world - but the city never got another Witte Fietsenplan. Molenaar believes this may be because everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike. Schimmelpennink, however, cannot see that this changes Amsterdam's need for a bike-sharing scheme. 'People who travel on the underground don't carry their bikes around. But often they need additional transport to reach their final destination.' Although he thinks it is strange that a city like Amsterdam does not have a successful bike-sharing scheme, he is optimistic about the future. 'In the '60s we didn't stand a chance because people were prepared to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that mentality has totally changed. Today everybody longs for cities that are not dominated by cars.'

G    现在在阿姆斯特丹，38%的旅行都是骑自行车的，和哥本哈根一样，它被认为是世界上两个最适合骑自行车的国都之一，但是这座城市再来没有第二个“小白车“计划了。莫莱纳尔认为这可能是因为阿姆斯特丹的每个人都已经有了一辆自行车。然而，Schimmelpennink并没有看到这改变了阿姆斯特丹对共享单车计划的需求。“乘坐地铁的人不会随身携带自行车，但他们通常却需要额外的交通工具才能到达最终目的地。“虽然他觉得像阿姆斯特丹这样的城市居然没有一个成功的单车共享计划很奇怪，但他对未来很乐观。“在60年代，我们没有任何机会，因为人们准备牺牲自己的生命来保护城市里的汽车。但这种心态已经完全改变了。如今每个人都渴望不受汽车主宰的城市。”