Dozens of cities from Paris to Portland have bike swaps – meaning designated stations throughout the cities where people can swipe a credit card, pick up a bike, use it for a set period and drop it off at another station.

The city of Cleveland may join them. Over the next six months, it’s doing a feasibility study to look at things like who -- among residents, commuters and tourists -- would most likely use the bikes and where the stations should be located.  

Matthew Gray is the director of sustainability for Mayor Frank Jackson.

 “Our goal is to move biking into the main stream. I think it’s fair to say it’s not quite a main-stream  community activity at this point. And that’s one of the beauties of bike shares. … Cities around the world have found that the supply does increase the demand. So once you make it easy for people to bike, all of the sudden they want to do it. And we think that might hold for Cleveland as well.”

Gray says one lesson learned from other cities is that – for the sake of upkeep – don’t get too fancy with the bikes; a simple, sturdy three-speeder seems to work best.