CIE’s Bike Share Expert Group gathers together leading European Bike Share Operators and Suppliers - Donkey Republic, Moventia, nextbike, PBSC, Smoove, Dott, Ride On, Urban Sharing, Qucit, eBikeLabs, Beryl and Pony – to form a strong advocacy voice for the sector.
The group’s autumn 2020 campaign brings attention to bike share benefits in the run up to EU’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the member states drafting their national recovery and resilience plans.
The campaign calls for Every European city should have its own bike sharing scheme, see here why! It claims that bike share can provide a rapid way for the member states to start delivering the goals of the EU Green Deal from climate to new green jobs and kick-starting the economy.
The group encourages all cities to urge their regional and national governments to include bike sharing (new schemes and expanding existing fleets) in their National Recovery and Resilience Plans. This is timely now as the member states are currently drafting the plans with big budgets and short deadlines. Big part of the investments needs to be climate tagged and that’s why bike sharing fits perfectly here.
Key messaging of the campaign is as follows:
Why every city in Europe should have its own bike share scheme.
- Affordable access to cycling for everyone
- Improved air quality
- Considerable reduction in CO2 emissions
- Reduction in congestion and noise
- Improves public health (€3bn annual health benefits in Europe)
- Brings new local jobs and boost for the economy
- Provides natural social distancing during the pandemic
- Fast to deploy
- Provides flexible cycling – short and long term
- Reduced need for bike parking
- Ideal to combine with public transport
Bike sharing is the fast track to delivering EU Green Deal goals.
Active mobility and bike sharing play an important role in accelerating Europe’s shift to green and digital zero emission mobility.
The EU has an ambition to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Transport accounts for a quarter, and growing, of the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions. More than 70% of Europeans live in cities and therefore transforming the way we move is critical in achieving the goal. We have a momentum of to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our cities and maintain the improved air quality we experience in our urban areas today.
Providing citizens with greener, more affordable, accessible and healthy alternatives to their current mobility options plays a central role. This is where bike share comes in. Bike share is key in achieving the shift to inclusive sustainable urban mobility. Well-connected urban transport systems combining bicycles, public transport and trains need to be implemented and combined with measures that actively deter private car use, to make our cities green, citizen-oriented and liveable.
A shift to sustainable and active urban mobility in cities can achieve important steps in the EU Green Deal quickly, effectively and cost-efficiently. Frontrunning European cities are already paving the way and building new bike lanes to ease overcrowding of public transport, improve air quality, provide a safe alternative for getting around and stop coronavirus from spreading.
Read the full position here.
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