Bern Transportation

Bern is one of nine cities in Switzerland where you can borrow a bicycle absolutely free for up to four hours just by leaving them your passport or ID-card and a deposit of twenty Swiss francs, both of which you get back when you return the bike.

Besides Bern, this service is also available in the Swiss cities of Geneva, Lausanne, Neuenburg, Renens, Sion, Thun, Vevey, and Zürich. The service is funded in part by the cities involved as a means of providing jobs for people who would otherwise be unemployed. Thirty new jobs have been created this way in Bern and Thun alone.

When you borrow a bicycle the first four hours are free, and after that you pay one Swiss Franc per hour. I kept mine for nine hours and paid only five Swiss Francs. (That's a mere three Euros in real money.)

Sound too good to be true? Well, it's a great service, but there are two slight catches:

First, you have to return the bike by 9.30 pm, so you can't use it to ride home from the opera or theater -- which, as I'm sure you are aware if you have read some of my other tips, is one of the most beautiful things you can do in a European city.

Second, the service is paid for in part by sponsors whose advertising signs are mounted on the bikes. Some of the smaller sponsors are quite harmless, like local pharmacies and newspapers, but the main sponsor is a notorious global fast-food corporation which is one of the main culprits in the world-wide obesity epidemic*, not to mention deforestation to raise cattle for their ground beef. So while I was having a great time riding around the city and doing my bit to preserve the environment, I was also unwittingly serving as an advertising agent for an infamous menace to public health. Can't say I was too happy about it.

*In case you are not aware of how serious the world-wide obesity epidemic has become, look up the September 2007 issue of Scientific American magazine. That was a special issue on Diet, Health and the Food Supply entitled "Feast and Famine -- The Global Paradox of Obesity and Malnutrition."

Second photo: A look inside the van at Casinoplatz, where the bicycles are stored overnight. By the way this lending station at Casinoplatz, at the north end of the Kirchenfeld Bridge, is only for the summer of 2008. Starting in May 2009 this station will be back in Zeughausgasse, where it used to be.

Third photo: I borrowed my bike here in the bicycle station "Milchgässli", right behind the main railroad station. This is also a place where people can park their own bikes, for a small fee, while they go away on the train someplace.

Fourth photo: Entrance and exit ramp in the bicycle station "Milchgässli". This is the one place in Bern where you can get a free bike all year round, not only from May to October.

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