The UK desperately needs this Boris Bike-like umbrella sharing system

How was your morning? Ours was great. We got a healthy dose of traditional grey british rain, savouring its bone-chilling effect with a soulless, downtrodden acceptance. Lovely stuff.

Naturally we didn’t have an umbrella, because the laws of nature dictate that you only carry one when the heavens are kept at bay.

Thankfully however, a group of clever people in Vancouver have created UmbraCity – an umbrella-sharing service which echoes London’s Boris Bike system.

Users sign up with a credit card and their email address, so that the system can detect when an umbrella has been taken and returned to a designated kiosk.

The service itself is completely free, as long as you return the umbrella to a kiosk within 48 hours. If you go beyond that deadline, you’ll be charged CA$1 a day, up to a maximum of $CA20, which seems fair enough.

Sadly the useful service is only available at the University of British Columbia Campus in Vancouver for the time being, but we urge people to send miserable soaked selfies to the company in a sympathetic attempt to include the UK in their roadmap.

#wetandmiserable

[via Gizmodo]

Esat Dedezade Contributor

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Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.