With the Lítačka applications and a time coupon for public transport, people in Prague can also rent some shared bicycles – ČT24 – Czech Television
Holders of all time coupons can rent a bike in Prague up to four times a day, but you must use the Lítačka mobile application, with the help of which the loan is made. “In particular, we want to improve and streamline the transport of citizens for the last mile or the last hundreds of meters from a metro station or tram stop,” said the mayor’s deputy for transport Adam Scheinherr (Prague himself).
They will pay twelve crowns to the city operators for each loan, and according to an earlier decision of the councilors, they have allocated two million four hundred thousand crowns for the test project. After their operation is exhausted, they will evaluate and prepare a permanent solution. “I expect that sometime next year, bikesharing operators will compete who would be permanently involved in the public transport system,” said the deputy.
Scooters will not be involved yet
Scheinherr also said that in the last year, the city, in cooperation with the transport company and the city districts, has installed bicycle stands at the metro station, but otherwise the distribution of bicycles is up to the operators. According to him, the two providers involved in the pilot project are the only ones who have signed up.
“We still contacted Lime, who has e-bikes, but they didn’t want to work with us and we didn’t want to involve scooters,” he explained.
The director of the ICT Operator Michal Fišer added that up to a quarter of a million users now use the Lítačka urban mobile application and about seven hundred thousand people have downloaded it.
The problem is poor storage of scooters
In Prague, they operate shared bicycles or e-bikes by Rekola, NextBike, Bolt, Lime or Homeport. In the last election period, Prague concluded a memorandum with the operators of shared means of transport. However, the municipality and the central city district criticize the company Lime, which operates shared electric scooters in the metropolis, for saying that it does not sufficiently enforce 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 municipality is preparing a new memorandum, which is to include both operators of shared bicycles and electric scooters. At the same time, city officials in June approved that Prague proposed an amendment to the law, which may limit the speed of bicycles and electric scooters on sidewalks, where exceptions to ride, less than the current limit of twenty kilometers thanks per hour.