List of bicycle-sharing systems

French cities not included in the list above offering a bicycle sharing system include Lorient, Annemasse and Aix-en-Provence.

In 1965, the group Provo painted fifty bicycles white and scattered them unlocked in downtown Amsterdam for everyone to use freely.[4] The bicycles were both taken by people, and impounded by the authorities, as a city ordinance forbade leaving unlocked bikes in public places.[316][317]

In September 1997, a pilot project for a public share system, based on the UK's Grippa racks was established in Rotterdam, for use by commuters, but it was terminated the following year due to poor functionality of the electronic bike racks.[318]

The first Norwegian bicycle sharing system was introduced in Sandnes[319] in 1996.[320] It consisted of 225 green DBS bikes that were free to use in the fashion of a 1st generation bicycle sharing system. The Sandnes system was converted to a 3rd generation system in 2002.[321] In 1998, Trondheim introduced a 2nd generation system with 200 bicycles modeled after that of Copenhagen's. The Trondheim system was converted into a 3rd generation system in 2005. The following cities are known to have city bike arrangements. Some are prepaid automatic (example Oslo), some are manual (like in Tønsberg). In 2001, Drammen introduced a 3rd generation system together with the Clear Channel.[320] Bergen, The second biggest city in Norway has occasionally had city bikes, and as of 2018 and 2019 opened a new and improved system based on the system in Oslo together with OBOS and Urban Infrastructure Partner.[322]

• Bergen
• Drammen
• Oslo - Oslo Bysykkel (172 rental hubs as of March 2017[323])
• Sandnes
• Trondheim
• Tønsberg

Timișoara is the first Romanian city to introduce a public rent-a-bike system. The scheme is called VeloTM and has 25 stations and 300 bikes. The rent-a-bike system works with the RATT card. Renting a bike is free however, the card costs.[324]

VeloBike bicycles in Moscow

Automated public bicycle sharing services in Russia operate in Moscow, Sankt-Petersburg, Kazan and Almetyevsk (Republic of Tatarstan). The system in Moscow is steadily expanding each year[325] while the systems in Sankt-Petersburg and Kazan are struggling to survive.[326][327] The system in Almetyevsk is dockless with about 300 pre-marked parking lots across the town where the bicycles must be left after use.[201] A couple of smaller-scale dockless systems are deployed in Adlersky City District in Sochi.[328][329]

Moscow

The Velobike system was opened in 2013. In 2015 it was fully replaced by the Smoove-based solution using B’TWIN bicycles.[330][331] In 2018 there were 430 parking stations in the system with 4300 bicycles. There were 424 736 users registered and 4.25 million journeys were performed in this season.[325]

Saint Petersburg

In 2020 the Smart Bike system has been launched in Saint Petersburg.

Other cities

In 2020 Velobike opened its systems in Murmansk, making it northernmost bicycle-sharing system in the world. There are 10 stations in the city centre. In August 2020 Velobike opened in Nizhny Novgorod

Mobee network

Russian-based Mobee bike-sharing brand operates a few dockless bikesharing networks. As of 2019 it has deployed its branches in three cities: Sochi, Volgograd and Saratov.[332][333]

In 2001, the not-for-profit organization BiCyBa released White Bicycles into public use in Bratislava, Slovakia. During the next three months all the bikes were stolen or destroyed, and the project was cancelled.[334][335] In 2013, a new community-run bike-sharing program in Bratislava called White Bikes commenced service with about 100 bikes (donated by local Rotary Club[336]) and over 60 stations (as of December 2017).[337] It is built on the Open Source Bike Share System[338] based on an SMS and a web app. It was started in 2013 by BikeKitchen initiative and cycling advocacy NGO Cyklokoalicia. There is no fee to use bikes, membership is granted after initial personal introduction and training. Bikes are available all year long.

Official Bratislava city bike sharing Slovnaft Bajk was launched on 7 September 2018[339] in cooperation with Slovnaft company. It offered only under 100 bicycles initially at around 80 stations.[340] Number of bicycles increased to around 190 later, but users complained about the UX and broken bicycles / rental process. Estimated 23%[341] of bicycles were not working or rendered inaccessible for rental. Another free-floating bike sharing system Rekola coming from Czechia was launched in September 2020.[342]

The first commercial bike sharing in Slovakia was launched in 2016 in the city of Prievidza. Zelený bicykel (translates as Green bicycle) has 19 stations and is expected to add 10 more in 2018.[343] Bikes are not available during winter season.[344]

Public transportation company Arriva launched a bike sharing in Nitra in 2017. It is a complementary service for its bus service. It only features 7 docking stations, the price is €25 per year, €3 per day or €0.50 per hour.[345][346] Bikes are not available during winter season.

Another commercial floating bike sharing system was launched by a telecom provider Antik Telecom in Košice in May 2019. They introduced their system to a districts Rača[206] and Vajnory[207] in Bratislava in June 2020.

Bicing in Barcelona

The Ayuntamiento de Burgos[347] runs a bike-sharing program in BiciBur,[348] with 23 locations, most with positions for ten bikes. Membership is €15 per year.[348]

The Stockholm City Bikes system has more than 80 stands and 1,000 bikes, functioning from April to October.[349]

The bike sharing system in Gothenburg, known as Styr & ställ, was launched in August 2010. The system has 60 stations and 1,000 bikes.[350]

A station in Lausanne (Switzerland).

Switzerland possesses several bicycle sharing systems including Publibike, Smide, and oBike which was launched in Zurich on 5 July 2017.[351] The Publibike network consists of 350 stations throughout the country.[352] It includes nine stations on the Lausanne campus.[353] oBike is said to have deployed 350 bikes in the city of Zurich with bike hire being CHF 1.50 for 30 minutes, with a CHF 129 deposit being required.[354] The city of Zürich also has a free bike-rental program, "Züri rollt", with several pick-up and drop-off locations.[355]

In 1993, a Green Bike Scheme bike sharing programme was initiated in Cambridge, United Kingdom, using a fleet of some 300 bicycles. The overwhelming majority of the fleet were stolen or missing within a year of the programme's introduction, and the Green Bike Scheme was abandoned.[356][357][358]

In an attempt to overcome losses from theft, the next innovation adopted by bike sharing programmes was the use of so-called 'smart technology'. One of the first 'smart bike' programmes was the Grippa™ bike storage rack system used in Portsmouth's Bikeabout scheme.[359][360][318] The Bikeabout scheme was launched in October 1995 by the University of Portsmouth, UK as part of its Green Transport Plan in an effort to cut car travel by staff and students between campus sites.[360] Funded in part by the EU's ENTRANCE[361] programme, the Bikeabout scheme was a "smart card" fully automated system.[360][318][362] For a small fee, users were issued 'smart cards' with magnetic stripes to be swiped through an electronic card reader at a covered 'bike store' kiosk, unlocking the bike from its storage rack.[360] CCTV camera surveillance was installed at all bike stations in an effort to limit vandalism.[360] Upon arriving at the destination station, the smart card was used to open a cycle rack and record the bike's safe return.[360] A charge was automatically registered on the user's card if the bike was returned with damage or if the time exceeded the three-hour maximum.[360] Implemented with an original budget of approximately £200,000, the Portsmouth Bikeabout scheme was never very successful in terms of rider usage,[lower-alpha 1] in part due to the limited number of bike kiosks and hours of operation.[360][362] Seasonal weather restrictions and concerns over unjustified charges for bike damage also imposed barriers to usage.[360] The Bikeabout program was discontinued by the University in 1998 in favour of expanded minibus service; the total costs of the Bikeabout programme were never disclosed.[363][364] Following the discontinuation of the University of Portsmouth's Bikeabout programme in 1998[365] (it had been launched in 1996),[366][367] the introduction of new bicycle share systems proceeded more slowly in the United Kingdom than in the rest of Europe.

With initial sponsorship from Barclays and later Santander, Transport for London launched a cycle hire scheme in London, where hire under 30 minutes is free from special bicycle stands across the city, after a daily, monthly or annual charge has been paid.[368]

Barclays Cycle Hire, London, UK started in 2010

Outside of London, the largest is the hire-a-bike operation in Blackpool, operated by Hourbike,[369] with 60 stations and 500 bikes in the scheme. This scheme uses both RFID membership cards and instant point-of-sale memberships to cater for both residential users and the very many visitors that go to the resort every year. Hourbike also has schemes in Lincoln, Reading, Liverpool, Nottingham and Southport in England as well as Dumfries, Scotland.[370]

In 2017, ofo, a Beijing-based bike share company, announced plans to provide shared bike services to several British cities. In 2018, the company withdrew service to several British towns and reduced service area coverage to others as part of a global restructuring plan.[371]

In May 2017, Bristol became the first European city to have a hire-a-bike system operated by YoBike.[372][373]

Some bike-sharing schemes use mobile phone apps to reserve or sign out bikes. In the UK, OYBike delivered small-scale operations at 2 universities, 3 business parks, 3 London boroughs, and a private hotel chain in London until 2011. Like Munich's Call-a-Bike, OYBike used mobile phone technology to log use and charge for hires and can set up hire points in as little as 10 minutes.[374]

Brompton Bike Hire has 40 docks across 25 major locations in the UK, starting at £2.50 for 24 hours and is using the same hardware as BIXI Montréal, members can rent a folding Brompton bike. The locations of the docks include London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Reading, Southampton and Oxford.[375]

in 2007,[376] (another source gives early 2008) London mayor Ken Livingstone promised that an extensive bicycle sharing system modelled on the Paris Vélib' system would be introduced in London during his final term in office.[377] The scheme was not completed until Boris Johnson was in office, and consequently became known informally as "Boris Bikes".[378]

In 2018 the Singaporean-based company oBike launched in London, with 400 dockless bikes and is anticipated to soon spread to other cities in the UK.[379][380] In the UK, oBike's bike hire is 50p for 30 minutes, with a £49 deposit being required.[379][381]

Belfast launched a public bike hire scheme on 27 April 2015. The scheme was sponsored by Coca-Cola HBC Northern Ireland and is called Coca-Cola Zero Belfast Bikes. The Department for Regional Development (DRD) provided initial capital funding for the scheme as part of their Active Travel Demonstration Projects budget. NSL is looking after the daily operation of the scheme, while Nextbike is responsible for the bikes.[382] There are 33 docking stations with options for expansion depending on securing additional resources and council approval.[383][384]

Recent expansions to cities in Scotland piggy-backing on the Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow included Glasgow and Stirling.[385][386][387] Stirling's scheme was named "Pedalforth" following a competition in the community and comprises 100 bikes and 11 stations. Glasgow was provided with 400 bikes across 31 stations in 2014.[388] Edinburgh have a bike share scheme called Just Eat Cycles and is operated with 99+ Stations.

Cardiff

Nextbike started a public bike hire scheme operating in Cardiff on 26 March 2018, with five docking stations and 50 bicycles.[389] The original plan had been to have the public bike hire scheme operating in Cardiff by Autumn 2017.[390] The plan is still to reach 500 cycles over 50 docking stations in the city.[389] It came 6 years after OYBike ended a smaller scheme (with 10 stations), following the council's withdrawal of funding in 2011.[390]

Swansea

Santander began a bike sharing scheme in Swansea in summer of 2018 . Initially, there were five docking station, with a sixth later being added in Mumbles. The scheme has proven popular and there are prospects of expanding the service in the city.

BIXI Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The first widely deployed bicycle sharing system was BIXI Montréal. BIXI Montréal launched in 2009.[391] It has since expanded to 6200 bicycles at 540 stations,[392] making it by far the largest bicycle sharing system in Canada. Although initial program costs were $15 million for planning and implementation of the Bixi project, subsequent additional costs incurred in expanding the program have driven costs upwards of $23 million.[393][394][395] Started in May 2009, it has expanded to over 5000 bicycles at 450 stations.[396] The system was developed by PBSC Urban Solutions along with a consortium of vendors. The BIXI technology was then used in numerous bike sharing systems in North America, Europe and Australia. The Montreal system was ranked by Time Magazine as the 19th best invention of 2008.[397]

Sobi Hamilton launched in March 2015 with 750 bicycles at over 100 stations.[398]