The "Villo" bike share scheme, based in Brussels, Belgium

Budapest will soon be installing a bike share scheme, joining a growing list of European capitals. 

“Our common goal is to see Budapest as a member of the international the public bicycle sharing community,” says a spokesperson for Budapesti Közlekedési Központ (BKK), the capital's transport authority. 

The new system will be called “Bubi” (short for “Budapest Bicikli”). Budapest is but one of many EU cities to have opted for a bicycle share scheme. According to the Bike sharing blog run by Metro Bike, there are currently over 300 cities in Europe with bike share schemes. 

BKK will be holding a one day workshop for operators and suppliers on March 21 in Budapest, Hungrary. It is currently seeking short ten minute presentations from interested operators and suppliers.

"BKK has studied several public bicycle sharing schemes operating internationally and developed the concept for Budapest. In order to complete a more detailed plan for the scheme, we believe it is important to involve stakeholders (operators and suppliers) to provide them with information about
the “bubi” concept and to gain valuable information by sharing experience in open discussions."

The supplier of the system shall be chosen later on through a public procurement tender by BKK.

Call for Presentations

On March 21, BKK will be holding a one day stakeholder meeting and is asking for interested parties to submit short presentations  (maximum of 10 minutes) on the following topics:

• System sizes, demand and capacity, bicycle distribution,system logistics
• Experience of system operation and development, any need for reasonable reconsideration of the original scheme concept
• Bicycle maintenance and transport, vandalism and theft (typical maintenance tasks, on-site/workshop activity)
•  Seasonal operations schedule, operations characteristics (night/winter/special public events), customer usage habits
• Trends, novelties, issues and best practices of system access (customer registration, bicycle pickup/return, availability of customer service)
• Payment procedures, financial settlements, system characteristics, IT issues (data transfer) and interoperability
• Characteristic system failures (customer side/operator side), most relevant demands for development indicated by customers

Interested parties should submit abstracts before March 14. For more information contact: kerekpar@cowi.hu

About the Author

 Founded in 1983, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) is the umbrella federation of the national cyclists’ associations in Europe, reinforced by similar organisations from other parts of the world. ECF seeks to change attitudes, policies and budget allocations at the European level. ECF stimulates and organises the exchange of information and expertise on bicycle related transport policies and strategies as well as the work of the cyclists’ movement.