Nashville's Downtown Bike Rental

Just last week, I was headed from my office to the Bus Station to take the long ride home when I came across this.  It's a bike rack with a credit card machine attached.  Quite apparently, you can rent bikes by the hour to travel around Nashville and see what there is to see.

The downtown area of Nashville is on a hill and it's one of the things which gives me a workout when I go walking.  I can't imagine what it would do on a bike.  The more I think on this, I realize there are large flat areas to view and with a bike may just be the best way to do it.  The downtown area itself is rife with history and historic places to see going back to before the civil war and as recent as the civil rights era of the 1960's.  For many years our downtown  sidewalks have been adorned with a wide green stripe giving tourists and locals alike a path to follow to view each of these historic places.  The Walking Tour, it was called. (And no, I never went a-walking the walking tour - so sue me.)

It's neat to see the city embracing the idea of biking as a way to get around the city, even if you do have to pay to rent them. The bikes are all painted a nice rich red and each comes with a built in basket and heavy duty lock. Across town are the newly installed GREENBIKES which are Free to use to visit the local parks and biking areas within.  (And yes, those bikes are indeed painted green.)

You'll also note that this rack has a big "B" on it. At first I thought this was identifying it as the 2nd such installation. No such thing!  It's actually the name of the company, "Nashville B-cycle" and there are actually more than 20 locations across the main part of the city.  You can learn more at their site.*

Ride around and enjoy the city, a great way to visit the south! 

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In truth, the site you see pictured has been removed (reasons unknown); but there are many others close by and I know folks to use this service regularly.