| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | ![]() |
What cities in Europe offer citybikes for rent?Interest forums / Travel on a shoestring | ||
Hi! | ||
As you describe it, I know a similar system has been recently introduced in Paris and Barcelona. | 1 | |
Beside numerous cities in Scandinavia, in the rest of Europe there are Paris, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Mulhouse, Rouen, Besançon, Toulouse and Dijon in France. In Spain, there are Barcelona, Cordoba, Gijon and Seville. Brussels has a system. Luxembourg and Vienna have also just signed contracts for bike systems. | 2 | |
@ gwovadis: Amsterdam doesn't have a system that allows you to pick up a bike at a random corner in the city as DDDeeva described. | 3 | |
its NOwhere free, and the cities are about those listed now. Free: like in CPH: theyre all gone within 1 week. often you need a kind of new-style chipcard, which as such may only want a refundable deposit, but is often only for locals with permanent adress. | 4 | |
I used the system in Helsinki (which is free), but it was difficult to find bikes for use. I found the racks were usually empty. I didn't see it in Stockholm, though. And I don't think Amsterdam has a community bike system. | 5 | |
In Paris, we have 20,000 bikes, but it is still often difficult to find a bike, depending on the neighborhood, in spite of 20 trucks restocking bike stations 24/7. | 6 | |
#1 Yes Barcelona has one of this systems, but for now only aimed to permanent residents. You have to get a "bicing" chipcard fom the City Council and pay an annual fee (24 €). It's planned to have a 1-week small fee (so it could be used for short stays) but it's not implemented yet. It' s functioning very well, there are many bikes in many pick/dropping points around the city. Bicing | 7 | |
The ones in Seville also require a 150€ credit card security but even so are so few that they are gone in a flash .. | 8 | |
I just saw this New York Times story about Paris' free bike program. | 9 | |
Deutsche Bahn has installed such a system in München, Berlin, Frankfurt/Main, Köln, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. It requires registration, then the bikes can be booked by mobile phone. Costs: 8 cent per minute, max. 15 € for a full day. | 10 | |
#9, the Paris system also requires a 150€ guarantee on the credit card (not debited if no reason to do so). | 11 | |
#11 -- 8 cents per minute? That's outrageous! In most of the other cities, the first 30 minutes are free (and you can change bike every 29 minutes if you want). | 12 | |