PEOPLE RESPOND TO INCENTIVES. Some high-sounding initiatives don't work so well in practice. Consider the "community bicycle," which is yellow in St. Cloud, white in Madison, and red in Rome, Georgia.

The bright red bicycles, each with an identifying plate reading “Berry Bike,” were available to all students on a “first-come, first-served” basis, making them a common property resource. In spite of the relatively favorable environment for common-property bicycles at Berry, it took less than two months for many of the bikes to be lost, stolen, or abused. This story illustrates the importance of private property rights and the folly of common property.

On the other hand, a deposit against a major credit card seems to solve the common-property problem.

Vienna, Austria has a new twist on the plan. Instead of renting cars by the hour, they let you rent bikes from automated bike rental machines (like the one below). This is the second iteration of the program. Apparently, you could originally rent the bikes by inserting a two-euro coin to release them, but too many weren't being returned. Now, you use your credit card to release the bikes (I'm unsure if there are any fees involved, as I speak no German), and you can use the bikes to run all the same types of errands that you don't want to have to walk or take transit to. Quite an innovative idea and one that gets the Third Rail seal of approval.

The project is unlikely to get the Aging Hippies seal of approval, as only holders of credit cards get to use bicycles. Expect a report on the Wiener Rad from the Superintendent in the near future. My conjecture: the credit card establishes liability in case a bike is stolen, or returned damaged. Rental-car businesses traffic only in credit cards for the same reason.