Prague will make shared bicycles available to owners of time coupons on public transport. 15 minutes will be free
According to the city management, shared bicycles are a beneficial complement to public transport. “At short and medium distances, it is the most environmentally friendly individual means of transport,” it is written in the approved material. The aim of the project is to verify the interest of Prague public transport passengers in the use of shared bicycles and the owners of time coupons another possibility of transport in the metropolis over shorter distances.
Negotiations between Prague and Nextbike, for example, have been going on for several months now. “So far, we are perceived by transport companies more as their competition. At the same time, experience from around the world shows that bicycles are a great accessory and an extended arm of public transport, especially off-peak. ” said Nextbike operations director Tomáš Karpov.
Possibility of use for owners of monthly to annual coupons
The possibility to rent a bike for free for the first quarter of an hour will apply to owners of coupons tied to a name in the P band, including Prague’s public transport lines, from monthly to annual. The city has set aside an amount of 2.4 million crowns for trial operation, after which the Ropid project will complete and evaluate the project.
In Prague, they operate shared bicycles or e-bikes by Rekola, NextBike, Bolt or Homeport. The city plans to conclude a memorandum with the operators and subsequently conclude cooperation agreements, which should be the same with all operators. To start the project, it will also be necessary to modify the check-in system so that people can use, for example, the PID Lítačka mobile application to rent a bicycle.
In the last election period, Prague concluded a memorandum with the operators of shared means of transport. However, the Lime company, which operates shared electric scooters in the metropolis, proved to be problematic. It is criticized by the municipality and the central city districts for not sufficiently enforcing the rules for storing carts and their movement on sidewalks. The current city management terminated the memorandum with the company in 2019.
According to previous information, the forthcoming new memorandum is to include both operators of shared bicycles and electric scooters. At the same time, city officials approved in June that Prague had proposed an amendment to the law that could limit the speed of bicycles and electric scooters on sidewalks where exceptions run to less than the current limit of 20 kilometers per hour.
ČTK + Zdopravy.cz