A Linear Walk with Publbike

I almost always go for walks that are a loop because I don't like to go back and forth. I prefer to have new sights for the entire walk. Today I thought about how I could go for a walk but rather than come back by a variant of that route I could come back with a bike.

If I use my own bike I would need to drop it off where I want to use it from but if I plan my walk from one Publibike point to another then I could ride home, or vice versa.

Avoid Unpleasant Roads

The reason for which I don't want to do a linear walk, these days, is that there are no safe roads back into the village, if you are on foot, whereas with a bike it's less critical. I could walk to Coppet or Gland and ride the bike back either to Nyon, or home to the nearest bike stop.

Extended Range

In theory this could be a practical way of enjoying walks that could reach further than usual, and combine cycling with walking. The issue is that if I ride too far they will need to repatriate the bike from one point to the next. They prefer people not to go on road trips because they don't want to spend too many resources driving bikes from point to point on a regular basis.

If I ride from Point A to Point B, and then ride back from Point B to Point A this is idea, because it requires no logistics. If I move the bike from Point A to B, but then take it from B to another point, then they need to take time to move spare bikes to where they are lacking.

Donkey Bikes

For Vaud bikes cost 3 francs for the first half hour and six francs per hour after that. In Geneva Donkey bike charge 3 CHF for 15 minutes but the cost per minute goes down as you ride for longer. It also costs 24 CHF for 6 hours but then it becomes more expensive than Publibike.

I mention this option because if you're walking in Geneva you need to use Donkey Bike but in Vaud, Fribourg and other cantons you use Publibike.

And Finally

The key advantage of studying the bike sharing options, for linear walks, is that if you walk from A to B, and have to wait for a bus, you may have to wait for half an hour to an hour depending on how lucky you are and you may need to take a bus, and then another bus, and ten a train, or a bus and a train, and then a bus. With bike sharing you could go straight back to your starting point within half an hour depending on the distance at your convenience.

What takes one and a half hours to walk on foot can take 22-26 minutes by bike. If you manage within half an hour, then your walk cost 3 CHF, without using a car, bus, or train to get home.