The first automatic bike-sharing stations I’Velo Urban have been commissioned by Green Revolution association in Universitatii Square in Bucharest on Tuesday.
The novelty of this bike renting concept is that you can rent the bike by yourself and use it 30 minutes free of any charge for a quick ride downtown Bucharest.
“I totally support this type of project, which learn us how to be green, to sport, to take care of our city (…) One of the recently approved drafts by the General Council of the city hall refers to 42 bike routes in the Capital. Soon this pilot project, which is now at the beginning due to the Green Revolution, will become reality, and the Capital city will be sliced by many bike routes,” Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea said.
The cards to use the bikes are available based on the ID cards at one of the I’Velo centres from Tineretului Park or Herastrau Park. One-day, one-month or one-year passes will be also available.
Once the card introduced in the card reader, the display will reveal the available bikes, while the user can choose one, which is automatically unblocked from the theft-proof system.
The device will also provide a receipt with information about the user’s name, station where he went from and the hour. If the bike is returned to any station in the city in less than 30 minutes, the ride is free. If the 30-minute deadline is overrun, the user must pay for using the bike, with the payment being available online, through his I’Velo account or at the centres in the above-mentioned parks.
According to the Green Revolution, programme manager Corneliu Belciug, there are six stations hosting 120 bicycles. “It’s a pilot project for now, it’s a test to see how people react to this project, we are trying to figure out what technical, software might come up. We want to see how the system works during winter so that in March, when the real biking season starts, we could be ready,” Belciug said.
He revealed that if the project goes well, there will be more stations.
The six existing stations are in the Universitatii Square, Revolution Square, Romana Square, Victoriei Square, Charles de Gaulle Square and Kaufland Barbu Vacarescu.