Congratulations to all PEBSS members and followers for having supported its first year of activities and must-attend programs.  Our most recent event was the well-attended +100 person Cities+Smart Bike Share workshop, held between 20-21 / November, here in Brussels at the International Press Centre, Residence Palace, directly opposite the EU Commission.

Several global cities such as Singapore, Moscow, London, Dublin, Lyon, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Manchester and Brussels, among others, also actively participated in this PEBSS workshop, contributing the all-important “citizen voice” to the bike share discussion.  Cities together with bike share operators (and suppliers) overwhelmingly concluded that new and shared regulatory frameworks are paramount to enable bike share to continue to be one of the breakthrough technologies in mobility for the 21st Century.  Businesses also need new structures to allow for a level playing field in competition and investment and to allow sustainable business models to emerge. There is huge benefit if these developments are mutually developed and share the expertise of cities and business.

PEBSS is proud to announce our new members for 2018.  Mobike, oBike, Belgium’s Mobit, Barcelona-based Moventia, Denmark’s Bycyklen, and San Francisco-based LINKA Technologies.  A wide, multi-sector variety of bike share actors.  Check out here each company’s profile and rationale for joining the world’s most important platform for the rapidly evolving smart bike share eco-system.  Current members are also of course profiled here.

The first public PEBSS conference was launched at Velo-city 2017 in Arnhem-Nijmegen, the Netherlands, with four (4) standing-room only packed workshops, announcing among other topics the publication of its PEBSS Policy Framework for Smart(er) Public Use Bicycles.  Subsequent events where PEBSS led, spoke and / or  participated were at the European Mobility Week’s event in Trento, Italy (21-22/Sept.), Bikeplus UK’s annual conference in Manchester (27-28/Sept.), Velo-Finland event in Tampere (12-14/Oct.), and the UITP’s Combined Mobility Platform in Paris (17-18/Oct.)

During the year we also hosted and heard from such world-class organisations such as the UITP, ITDP, NACTO, NABSA, and a wide variety of political officials and EU representatives.  Such political leadership and input came from Minister for Mobility Pascal Smet, of the Brussels Capital Region, together with MEP Michael Cramer.

With all this momentum we end 2017, and prepare PEBSS to accelerate through 2018 to further develop the frameworks needed.  Experts from industry and cities committed themselves to sharing expertise and forming expert groups in 2018.

PEBSS Director Paul Stratta said:    “I am pleased PEBSS is delivering on its mission to facilitate the open, frank workplace for the entire bike share eco-system.   I can see that Cities, PTAs / PTOs, governments, bike share operators, high-tech suppliers, NGOs, EU institutions, consultants and the media came away with a passion to continue the debate.”

Keep your eyes peeled for exciting events and activities, expert work groups, and conferences throughout all of 2018.

Happy holidays.  Onwards and upwards…