Originally Posted by
BobbyG
I assume "bike sharing". I believe bike rentals are the traditional method...go to a bike shop, rent a bike for a set amount of time, return it to bike shop. Bike and scooter shares are the more recent multi-station, app-based, leave'm-somewhere-else when done (usually blocking the damn sidewalk).
Correct me if I'm wrong...(It IS bikeforums after all).
I believe there's a bit of semantic argument in that "bike sharing" doesn't actually involve sharing anything. It's just another form of bike rental.
The "sharing" terminology was borrowed from the Uber world, where the euphemism was arguably employed to further the notion that those businesses were not taxi services and thus fell outside of extant regulatory processes. But Uber is really just a taxi service you summon via app rather than a phone call or raised hand and bike sharing is just bike rental that doesn't require human contact.