Aha, I've figured out why none of the bikesharing websites list Vallocycle, and why I didn't know about it: It's not really bikesharing. It's bike
rental.
Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome program and is probably perfect for a town like Montevallo. I am not criticizing it when I say it isn't bikesharing. I'm just saying it's a different animal than the systems my original list was looking at.
There are two key differences:
1) How rentals are handled, and 2) how long rentals are intended to last.
Rental handling:
In a "bikesharing" system, almost everything is automated. Specially-designed bikes are locked into specially-designed stations. To access a bike, users swipe a membership card which unlocks a bike from the station. In a "bike rental" system, the bikes are kept in a storage room or a shed or something like that, and users access them by getting an attendant (a real person) to unlock one for them.
Rental times:
In "bikesharing" users are not supposed to keep the bikes very long. The idea is that they should be accessed and then put back into another station within 1/2 hour. You pick up a bike, ride it wherever you're going, and then drop it off at another station near your final destination. In "bike rental" you keep your bike for hours or days at a time, and return it to the same place you got it from.
It appears that Montevallo is bike rental because to get a bike you walk up to someone and ask them to get you one, and because the rental period is for up to 8 days at a time. This is a very different usage model than the automated, high-turnover Bixi and B-cycle systems.
I'm not entirely sure how widespread Montevallo-style bike rental programs are, but they are definitely not unheard of. For example, the University of Colorado in Boulder has a similar program called
Buff Bikes that is totally separate from Boulder's B-cycle bikesharing network.
Again: This is not a criticism. Montevallo's program looks awesome. I am just explaining that it's different.