US 7,898,439 B2 · Bicycle rental system and station

Abstract

A bicycle rental system and automated station that may be integrated with an automobile parking payment and management system. Users may pay for parking and/or rent and pickup bicycles at the station. The station has a meter, bicycle docks, and power plant. Transaction formalities for parking payment and rental may be handled at the meter. The bicycle docks each are adapted to secure a bicycle. The power plant uses a solar panel to collect power and stores it in energy storage device. Low-power operation may be achieved by placing some electronics in a low-power mode. Each bicycle dock may have a trigger mechanism that when activated powers on associated electronics. The bicycle docks may be divided among a number of bicycle modules. The bicycle modules provide flexibility and modularity so that the number of bicycle docks at a station may be changed.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A bicycle rental station adapted for use in conjunction with a payment station, the bicycle rental station comprising:

a solar panel;
a trigger mechanism configured for activation by user action;
an energy storage device coupled to receive energy from the solar panel;
a wireless transmitter operable in a low-power consumption mode and a higher-power consumption mode;
and
a plurality of bicycle docks, each bicycle dock comprising an electronic element operable in the low-power consumption mode and the higher-power consumption mode, wherein,
each electronic element and the wireless transmitter are coupled to receive energy from the energy storage device;
and
the bicycle rental station is configured to, in response to activation of the trigger mechanism, place at least one of the electronic elements and the transmitter in the higher-power consumption mode from the low-power consumption mode to transmit information from the bicycle dock to the payment station.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Bicycle rental system and station

Life of this patent

Bicycle rental system and station

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16