A new imaginative scheme by the manager of a car parking business in Chania is helping his business but also the environment and offers a useful service for his customers. Apollon car park is making free bicycles available for customers to use for their shopping and sight seeing in the centre of Chania
The parking manager and owner Mr Papadakis said to the local press that the idea for the scheme came to him when customers started asking if they could borrow his wife’s bike that was stored by the main office. “So I thought why not get some more bikes and offer a service to the people who park their cars here?” Mr Papadakis continued adding that using a bike in Chania is a far more easy way to move around than driving during the busy summer season, and it is by far a more environmentally friendly way to travel in town. “There is too much traffic in Chania – I hope people will at some point learn to rely less on their cars” he said.
There was a very enthusiastic response by customers.
Chania council had in June 2014 announced a €160K EU funded bike hire scheme using 70 bikes distributed at four stations through Chania. The council now thinks that the stations and the electronic control systems, touch screens and user magnetic cards will be ready to operate by the end of June 2015. We will anxiously wait to see them operate.
The Council scheme bikes will be located at:
Talo square 10 locking bays
Katehaki square 15 bays
Defkalion Square 22 bays
Markopoulos square 23 bays.
