Call-a-bikes may not answer
If you are missing the sparkle of shiny silver bikes with fluorescent orange accents around town, you will have to wait until April to see them again. Call-a-bike is currently going through a “Chapter 8” (regrouping, not liquidating) bankruptcy. In the minus by “three to four million marks,” company president Christian Hogl hopes that by revamping the original concept and offering special Call-a-bike stocks, he will make up the losses quickly. One main reason for the business’ collapse was the false security won by the more than 35,000 registrants of the bike rental service. Of those, only 8,000 became regular users. In the future, Hogl and Co. propose to remove the stipulation that bikes must be returned to a telephone booth. Instead, cyclists may rent or return their wheels on any street corner. Monthly “subscriptions” to the tune of about DM 20 will be offered and, internally lavish personnel costs will be drastically cut. Organizers and bankruptcy clerks alike hope that Call-a-bike’s environmentally friendly service has the time it needs to catch on.
