Helsinki City Bikes
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|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Helsinki City Transport |
| Locale | Helsinki |
| Transit type | Bicycle sharing system |
| Number of stations | 150 |
| Website | www |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | May 2, 2016 |
| Operator(s) | Moventia |
| Number of vehicles | 1500 bicycles |
Helsinki City Bikes (Finnish: Kaupunkipyörät or Alepa-fillarit, Swedish: Stadscyklar) is a public bicycle system covering downtown Helsinki and integrating with the rest of the public transport in Helsinki since May 2016. It is operated as a public-private partnership between Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL), Helsinki City Transport (HKL), Moventia and Smoove.
The City of Helsinki had similar bike share program to Copenhagen City Bikes (also cancelled) from 2000 until 2010 when it was terminated in owing to funding issues and ongoing vandalism that required costly repairs and replacement of bicycles. Since the demise of first City Bikes, Helsinki City Transport was negotiating with JCDecaux Finland for a new bike share system. The system would have included 500 bikes and 34 stands in downtown Helsinki, modeled after the Paris Vélib' program, with part of the program costs to be paid by commercial businesses in exchange for 45 double-sided advertisement boards inside the city centre. However Helsinki could not agree places for advertisement boards and the deal was cancelled. In 2015 HKL made agreement with Moventia and Smoove about 2nd generation City Bikes and operation started in May 2016.
During the first week of operation, the bikes were used 15 000 times, which amounted to more than 6 rides per bike per day. In first three weeks 43 000 trips were made with the bikes and system had 6 000 registered users. During the first season when 500 bikes were in operation users rode over 740 000 kilometers.
After successful start Helsinki metropolitan area cities Espoo and Vantaa are considering joining the Helsinki bike sharing system. Autumn 2016 Espoo decided to start pilot trial with Helsinki bikes in summer 2017.
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