Shared Bicycle Mobility in the EU Cycling Strategy
A Shared Bicycle Mobility includes more than "simply" bike sharing schemes: peer-to-peer system facilitators, corporate leasing, cargo and rickshaw services, and related suppliers and stakeholders.
Bike sharing is widely appointed in the EU Cycling Strategy as an essential component of any multimodal transport system and an enabler of innovation at city level. This gives a broad framework for positive policies and investments in the public bicycle sharing sector, that is strategically positioned to be a major contributor to the success of the strategy. The companies that provide bike sharing and allied services will be among the major beneficiaries of the EUCS.
A number of specific policy recommendations for the EU and Member states are also included in various chapters of the EUCS, including:
- Integration of cycling and public bike-sharing into multimodal journey planners, ticketing schemes and Mobility-as-a-Service applications;
- Physical optimization of the access ways for cyclists at and around public transport stations;
- Digital and fiscal integration to make bike sharing accessible with the same card or account that is used for other public transport services;
- Inclusion of cycling and public bike sharing data and services within the standardisation and harmonisation of multimodal and real-time transport data;
- Consolidation of the data collected from public bike sharing schemes for better and seamless intermodal trips;
- Encourage data collection from cyclists, to use this data to improve urban cycling and to allow access to data for individual cyclists.
Job creation
The latest technology and market trends in cycling are strongly influencing the sector's economy. The growth in e-bikes production and sales doesn't seem to slow down, for the moment, determining a shift in the technicians required. As cycling jobs become e-mobility and digital jobs there is a need for an integrated skills approach in public transport route planning, in mobility centres, in bike and e-bike sharing systems, in promoting innovations in mobility services, in awareness raising as well as mobility advisers, behaviour change practitioners and in bicycle maintenance and retail.
As a strategic priority, the industry needs to be part of EU and educational institutions’ development of relevant skills. Reckoning the regional skills shortages related to cycling manufacturing, retail and services will enable further bike sharing expansion and between 1.5 and 5 million new EPACs sold.
