For many of us a car is a sign of personal freedom. When we were teenagers, the two ultimate acts of freedom and responsibility are moving out and getting your own car. So to be told that it is better to give up your car (at least around town anyway) because of its impact to the environment and your health is usually met with much scepticism and negativity by most drivers. However, in Boston there is hope. It is projected that the US city will have the country’s largest bike sharing program this year, after Canadian company Bixi was announced last August as Boston’s cycling partner.

Some 2500 bikes are earmarked for the beginning of the project with that number hoping to rise to 5000 once it catches steam (if it ever does). Why would thousands of Americans ditch their car and don a cycling helmet? The cost for one: an annual membership to the scheme costs around $40 and when you consider that the average bus journey is $1.35 then you can see the potential savings.

There have been success stories elsewhere with Paris being the most obvious example, as the French capital has 20,000 bikes for hire. The craze is also set to spread to Asia, and more specifically China, as they try to combat an ever growing congestion problem on the roads.

Will it be a success? It is hard to tell. A similar scheme was implemented in Washington DC last year and currently there are only around 100 bikes zipping about the city. Even given the population difference it is still enough evidence to suggest that it hasn’t really caught on in car-loving America. Britain tried a similar scheme in the early nineties in the University town of Cambridge however it had to be abandoned after a day because many of the 300 bikes for hire were stolen.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have such a negative view of the bike sharing program; while it may take a while to convince the majority of the population it could be the answer to solving the problem of road congestion and, in the meantime, our CO2 emission.