E-Bike Sharing Comes To Basel; Historical Dig Reveals Ancient Dog Do; Pricey Kebabs Fly Off The Spit; Utility Company Releases Results

News For 22 May 2018

A new venture called Pick-E-Bike will be the first to offer E-Bike sharing for Baslers. The joint venture of the bus and tram operator BLT, power company Elektra Birseck, and the Basler Kantonalbank launched its services last Thursday.  250 bikes will be strategically placed throughout the city, which can be unlocked from their stands using the associated smartphone app of the service.  The venture has contracted with JobFactory to collect and redistribute bikes which may end up bunching up in one area.  Currently, the cost of renting the E-Bikes is 25 rappen per minute, which will set you back 15 francs if you ride for an hour.  Although expensive by other bike sharing schemes in Switzerland, none of them offer the Stromer E-Bike which according to BLT Director Andreas Büttiker is the Tesla of E-Bikes.

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As the archaeological work continues under Basel's police building, researchers are developing a better view of Middle Age life.  The digging has turned up fossilized dog feces which seems to indicate that even 500 years ago, dogs lived in close quarters with their hosts.  What the researchers are having trouble explaining is the quantity of dog poo that seems to have been massed inside the working quarters of what was once an atelier.  The best speculation now is that the turds were somehow used in crafts like leather making.

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You might have heard last month about the woman that accidentally tipped her Kebab joint 7000 francs when she typed her pincode instead of the amount in the card reader she was using to pay.  Well, it turns out that expensive Kebabs are not only a function of bad luck in the canton of Zurich.  In an article by on-line magazine The Local, they profile Ayverdi Restaurant, which thanks to the success of its 91 CHF gourmet kebab, is opening a third outlet in the city.  You may be asking yourself if a 91 CHF kebab is worth waiting in queues that annoy the neighbors of the existing restaurants.  Customers that have tasted the manna of kebab with roasted avocado or buffalo mozzarella don't seem bothered as the owners claim they are selling seven tonnes of meat per month.

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The Industrielle Werke Basel or IWB, Basel's main electrical, heating and water utility reported its operating results late last week.  Turnover for fiscal year 2017 increased to 739 Million CHF, but profits slipped from 107 to 74 million CHF.  Electricity sales increased as the volume of customer demand continued to grow last year, however sales of gas and heating was down as average temperatures continued to rise.  The company invested CHF 142 million in infrastructure upgrades throughout the city and will make a profit distribution of 22 million francs to Basel Stadt.  IWB reduced its headcount from 826 to 806 full time positions at the end of the fiscal year.