The 3,500 shared bicycles from private companies deployed on the streets of Barcelona will disappear on January 1st of next year. The City Council has decided not to renew the licenses granted two years ago to companies that offer electric bicycles parked on the street and that are paid for by the minutes they are used, like shared motorcycles, which continue to operate unaffected by this change.
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Parking indiscipline has led to these types of bikes being found parked haphazardly in the middle of sidewalks, doorways, and crosswalks. Neighbor complaints have been numerous, and since January of last year, the City Council has imposed 5,500 sanctions on operating companies, including local companies like Cooltra and international ones like Lime and Bolt. The tender was highly fragmented, and up to seven different companies obtained licenses, although some of them have already ceased operations because they weren’t profitable.
“There has been a mess and misuse; Barcelona must protect public space, and sustainable bicycle mobility must prioritize residents,” justified the mayor, Jaume Collboni, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, where he announced that the concession will expire at the end of this year. It could have been extended for two more years, but the City Council has decided to say enough is enough.
90% of users are tourists
The decision is framed from the perspective of mobility, but mainly from the coexistence between tourists and residents. According to municipal sources, 90% of users of these types of bikes are tourists. This explains why the Sagrada Familia and the beaches were the points where most bicycles from these companies were found.
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The disappearance of these types of bikes unlocked via mobile applications follows the same steps as scooters, which the municipal government opposed despite having more than twenty companies knocking on the door to deploy their devices. Some even did so illegally and ended up in a Guardia Urbana warehouse.
The measure has provoked reactions against it from positions as disparate as the cycling entity BACC and the PP. “What Barcelona needs is not a new prohibition, but order and common sense,” the popular party denounces.
Bicing, the public shared bike that continues and is to be promoted
Collboni reminds that tourists still have rental bikes available in establishments dedicated to it. For residents, he has promised to promote Bicing, the more than consolidated public shared bike system, which in recent times has been experiencing serious maintenance problems due to the large number of users it has incorporated. The real challenge is the union with the metropolitan AMBici, which must be secured with the future Bicing concession, scheduled for 2028.
