I visited Paris in the summer of 2007. After spending a couple of weeks of learning french and reading the lonely planet, I was prepared for a week or two of intense historical, cultural and architectural overdose. Everything was pretty much as imagined except the law that allows one to open a bottle of wine, out in the open in a park, something that is a huge taboo in New York. Another great thing to see was the Velib bikes – a public bicycle rental program. My credit card somehow didn’t work with the system but I discovered later that one can also buy a 1 to 7 day Velib card over the internet. A similar New York bike share project summer pilot was launched in 2008 and was quickly wrapped up. I haven’t seen anything since.

Today, as I worked on the projects that pay my bills and simultaneously scanned my reader for some inspiration, a project called FreMo caught my eye – A bikeshare program in India. A couple of things did go through my mind as I scanned their websites for the deliverable and information. India is a country packed with two wheelers. Is there a need for such a service? Even if there is, the idea of taking out credit, borrowing, sharing and leasing things are not quite culturally ingrained or accepted. Also, the country seems to be accelerating in terms of per capita income of the middle class. People have more spending power. More and more college grads prefer to drive cars vs scooters and bicycles. In such a backdrop, I am glad someone thought of FreMo and opened up an option that we are conveniently negating. The option of leaving our cars behind, reducing congestion on the narrow, badly maintained roads and reducing pollution in cities full of smog is surely a welcome sign. I hope that it gets deployed. For Rs 499 lifetime membership, it seems like something I would use.

Here is more on FreMo. “FreMo” is a division of Ecomove Solutions Pvt Ltd