A tender for a new electric city bike is to be announced in February. The city plans that if all goes well, there will be 1000 bicycles at 100 stations available for residents already around the holidays. These are also to be located on the periphery and in less urbanized neighborhoods. The new municipal electrics are to be access function to means of public collective transport.
A tender for electric bikes is up!
“We will announce the tender in February. To start with, we want a thousand bikes. The inhabitants do not massively use and do not know electric bikes, so we want to distribute them. That is why we do not go straight to the level of three thousand bikes. We will be the first city in Poland to offer an electric city bike” – says Łukasz Franek, director of the Public Transport Authority (ZTP).
A new system – lease for min 4 years
The new system of the Krakow city bike (there is no official name yet) works differently from the Wavelo system, where the costs of the system, but also the income, were on the operator’s side. Now, Krakow wants to have a service, at least for 4 years, for which it will pay, as it pays MPK and Mobillis for transport services.
The costs behind it
What costs are we talking about? ZTP estimates that it will be approx. PLN 5-7 million per year. For the implementation of the bicycle policy, including the city bicycle system in Krakow, in 2021 the city budget has allocated less than PLN 10 million.
“The interested companies declare that they are able to prepare the system in 3 months. Theoretically, the bike could be available during the holidays, I do not want to declare it. The situation is what it is. It may turn out that there are no bikes or companies will miss financially. You also have to take into account appeals from the tender” – emphasizes Łukasz Franek.
1000 bicycles at 100 stations, including a lot on the outskirts
ZTP officials assume that the basic function of the new city bike will be the function of accessing public means of collective transport. In addition, the electric bicycle is to play an important communication function in the more peripheral, less urbanized regions of Krakow. Initially, there will be about 100 stations (10 bikes for each station) and they are to be evenly distributed throughout the city. Thus, there will be less accumulation of stations in the very center of Krakow.
Hubs outside of the city + on the outskirts
The stations would appear, among others in such locations as Tyniec or the area of ul. Klasztorna. It is also about places where there is a bicycle infrastructure, there are paths for bicycles, thanks to which you can cover longer distances on electrics, up to 10-15 km. For now, it remains unknown how much the residents will pay for the new city bike, whether it will be somehow related to the public transport ticket tariff, etc.
“If we were to make an ordinary bicycle, we can repeat the Wavelo model, but here we want flexibility, where the stations are integrated with public transport, where it is possible to change and correct it” – adds Łukasz Franek.
Wavelo bikes left Krakow
Let us remind you that Wavelo has been operating in Krakow since 2016. It was very popular among residents and tourists. The Krakow authorities have signed a contract with BikeU to run a city bike rental facility for as many as eight years, until 2024. As part of it, BikeU provided residents with up to 1500 bicycles available at one time at 168 stations located throughout the city.
The Krakow city bike solution was quite innovative, because all costs and responsibility for the system were borne by the concessionaire, i.e. BikeU. The city paid only PLN 1 month for each bike, i.e. PLN 1,500. In addition, the city got 1 percent. loan receipts.
At the end of 2019, however, the BikeU company suddenly submitted a letter to the Krakow City Hall terminating the contract for running the Wavelo bicycle rental. More Wavelo two-wheelers began to disappear from Krakow. Ultimately, it happened at the beginning of 2020.
Article info was taken from Gazeta Krakowska.
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