Laurent Mercat of Smoove to lead CIE's Bike Share Expert Group

Laurent Mercat, founder of Smoove has been appointed as new Chair of Cycling Industries Europe's Bike Share Expert Group, replacing nextbike's Sebastian Schlebusch who left the company earlier this autumn to join Jump by Uber. Steve Pyer from Ride On was selected as a Vice Chair of the group. Lauha Fried, Policy Director of CIE, continues as a staff coordinator of the group. CIE's Bike Share group was launched in May 2019 with eight leading bike share operators and suppliers - Donkey Republic, nextbike, Smoove, PBSC, Ride On, Moventia, Jump by Uber and Mobike - as its founding members.    

Mercat said: "I look forward to working together with the European level leadership group to drive the sector forward. There's a real momentum for bike share reflected in the rapid growth of the sector. We have an important part to play in cutting down greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from cities and reducing traffic congestion and noise. Shared mobility systems will change cities offering easier, faster, healthy and cost effective way of  getting around and moving away from car-centric mobility".

Laurent Mercat is a pioneering expert in the bike share sector, a founder of Smoove, and has worked many years for Altermodal-Inddigo, a French consulting company supporting French cities and metropolitan areas in defining policies, planning, street infrastructure projects, bike facilities and services. Mercat has been involved in numerous bike sharing projects worldwide inclduing North America, Latin Amercia, South-East Asia, Africa, Europe and Russia.

For more information or to join please contact Lauha Fried at L.Fried(at)cyclingindustries.com or see Cycling Industries Europe Bike Share Expert Group