Central Florida has recently joined a popular trend of recreational biking: bike sharing where people rent the use of bikes by the hour or have a monthly membership and pick up the bikes at hub locations thanks to a unique GPS-enabling locking system.

In Tampa some 300 bikes have been set up by the first-of-a-kind alliance between CycleHop and Social Bicycles, the two innovators in this technology. Vacationers using the app will discover they can now set up a bike trip almost at a moments notice with their cellphone.

For example you could reserve a bike, pick it up for example at one of City Bike of Tampa’s two downtown locations (they are mechanical support for Coast Bike Share), ride over to Ybor City and stop for Cuban coffee while locking your bike with a 4-digit pin number, and finally ride down Bayshore Drive, Florida’s longest sidewalk to Ballast Park.

“The smart bikes” will also be useful for local people riding around downtown to get to lunch or a meeting. The Social Cyclist app turns every ride into a social trip since you can record your distances and locations, add photos, request bike parking, and even report road conditions.

For more details on this topic – go to http://www.coastbikeshare.com.