This month CIE caught up with the Project Leader of the Bike Share Expert Group's new ROI Study, Nick Brown, to discuss the surprising connection between rebuilding the Notre Dame and bike sharing, and how cycling could move from being a "nice to have" to a core part of urban transport policy.
Can you tell me more about Velogik and your role?
Velogik was founded in 2008 in France, right at the start of the modern micromobility movement. The company quickly established itself as a leader in the French bike-share and maintenance market — most notably maintaining 20,000 bikes for Paris’s Vélib’ scheme, supported by a large, state-of-the-art workshop network.
We also operate Véligo, a lesser-known but equally impressive service with another 20,000 electric bikes, based on a long-term subscription model. I love this scheme — users pay €40 a month to have their own e-bike for 6–9 months. The idea is to help them shift from being occasional riders to becoming true cyclists — to make cycling a natural part of everyday life.
When Velogik expanded into the UK, it did so by forming a joint venture with social enterprises, creating a B-Corp certified company. At the time, the business was called Motion Forward and was operating the Glasgow Cycle Hire Scheme.
When I came in to head up the joint venture in 2023, one of my first moves was to rebrand the business back to Velogik, proudly recognising our French heritage while adding “UK” to distinguish our growing presence here. Shortly after, I led a buyout of the social enterprise, transforming the relationship into a strategic partnership. This allowed us to create a clearer structure and become 100% owned by our French parent company, while still working closely with our social enterprise partners on community-focused initiatives.
Since then, we’ve grown from that single scheme in Glasgow to operating across Leeds, Bristol, Stirling, Swansea, and Edinburgh, while also supporting our French colleagues in exploring opportunities across continental Europe.
Everything we do is driven by the same founding passion that Franck, our founder, started with: keeping bicycles — and people — moving. En movement!
What cycling trends are you most excited to see by the year 2030? And by 2050?
Our upcoming ROI study has shown just how quickly bike sharing is growing — and how significant the socio-economic benefits can be. If that growth continues on its current trajectory, we’ll see even greater productivity gains, improved public health, and more jobs created across the cycling industry. All of which are strong contributors to overall economic growth.
Looking further ahead, I think one of the biggest shifts will be cultural. For too long, the cycling industry has focused on the 2% of people who identify as “cyclists”, rather than the 98% who could be everyday cycle users. Not everyone wants to be an “ist” — they just want to get around easily. I love road and mountain biking, but my mum, for example, just uses her bike to pop to the shop — and that’s just as important.
I’m also excited about how companies like Lime, Voi, and Dott are changing perceptions. They’re fantastic at marketing cycling as accessible and modern, helping to get thousands of new riders into the saddle in cities like London and Paris. That’s hugely positive for the industry — and I think this trend of mainstream, everyday cycling will only accelerate through 2030 and beyond, shaping truly sustainable urban mobility by 2050.
What do you see as a major challenge in the cycling industry, and how can Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) play a role in overcoming that challenge.
One of the biggest challenges we face is securing sustained investment from cities — not just in bike share, but in cycling infrastructure as a whole. Cities need support and evidence to justify this investment, and too often, cycling is still seen as a “nice to have” rather than a core part of urban transport policy.
That’s exactly where our ROI study comes in. By quantifying the real financial return from bike share — and, by extension, the broader benefits of cycling — we can make a stronger case for funding and prioritisation.
CIE plays a crucial role in this. It gives the industry a unified voice in Europe, helping us communicate the shared value of cycling — not just for our businesses, but for society as a whole: cleaner air, healthier citizens, more vibrant cities, and stronger local economies.
What or who in the cycling industry inspires you, and why?
For me, it’s the people I work alongside in the CIE Bike Share Expert Group. They’re an incredible group of passionate professionals who have been shaping the industry for years. The depth of knowledge, experience, and genuine commitment they bring to advancing bike share in Europe is hugely inspiring.
What really stands out is how this collective expertise translates into powerful, evidence-led messaging and expert-driven discussions that help move the entire sector forward. I always look forward to the CIE Bike Share Roundtable at Velo-city — it’s consistently one of the most oversubscribed sessions at the conference, and for good reason. It’s driven by people who care deeply about improving cities through cycling, and I’m genuinely proud to work alongside them.
Can you describe in around five words how cycling is saving the world?
Quantifiable social and economic benefits.
What’s one common misconception about bike sharing?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that all bike share systems are the same. In reality, they serve quite different purposes.
I tend to think of docked systems as part of a city’s public transport network — they’re like an extension of buses or trams, designed for daily commuting and integration with urban mobility plans. Meanwhile, free-floating systems — the ones you can pick up and drop off anywhere — behave more like private hire services, similar to an Uber but on two wheels.
Both models are valuable, but they’re funded and structured very differently. What I’d love to see is cities recognising free-floating systems as part of the public transport ecosystem — perhaps even subsidising trips to make them as accessible and affordable as buses or trains. Technically, they’re delivering the same public good: helping people move around efficiently, sustainably, and affordably.
As the Project Leader of the ROI Study, you have unparalleled insights into the content of it, what do you think the most powerful or surprising number is that will drive bike share implementation.
For me, the most powerful achievement of this study is that we’ve moved beyond assumptions and anecdotes — we’ve turned the long-believed benefits of bike share into quantifiable, financial evidence, developed by economists at EY, one of the world’s top accountancy firms.
The standout finding is around productivity gains. By reducing congestion and delays in public transport, bike share has given back 750,000 hours to the people of Europe — that’s the equivalent of the time it would take to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral.
And it doesn’t stop there. Bike share systems also create around 6,000 jobs — that’s roughly the number of people it would take to build four or five Eiffel Towers every single year.
Those are extraordinary figures. They put into perspective just how much economic and social value bike share generates for our cities — and they give policymakers exactly the kind of hard evidence we’ve all been waiting for.
The Economic and Social Return on Investment study, conducted by EY and commissioned by CIE and EIT Urban Mobility will be first presented at the 2025 Cycling Industry Summit in Brussels. Registration is still open for the event.