Lime, Bolt, Yego, Bird, Pony… Lately, it’s not easy to find your way around the multitude of free-floating applications, whether they offer self-service scooters, bicycles or scooters. To put an end to this merry mess, the Métropole plans to launch a call for expressions of interest (Friend) in April. And thus reduce the number of operators present in Bordeaux, which was 11 in January (see box), and extend them to the agglomeration.
If the City of Paris carried out a similar initiative in July 2020 for scooters…
Lime, Bolt, Yego, Bird, Pony… Lately, it’s not easy to find your way around the multitude of free-floating applications, whether they offer self-service scooters, bicycles or scooters. To put an end to this merry mess, the Métropole plans to launch a call for expressions of interest (Friend) in April. And thus reduce the number of operators present in Bordeaux, which was 11 in January (see box), and extend them to the agglomeration.
If the City of Paris carried out a similar initiative in July 2020 for scooters, and launched a call for tenders in December to limit scooter operators, Bordeaux Métropole is the first French agglomeration to carry out such a project. “Only a few municipalities in the second crown refused, as well as Talence, which is still hesitating”, relates Isabelle Rami, elected to alternative mobility. “We are doing everything to convince the municipality of Talençaise and thus avoid a hole in the racket. »
In detail, the community wants to select a maximum of two operators per category of vehicle before the summer. The same operator can win several calls, six companies or less will be selected. This call, valid for one year, will be renewable twice.
“To take the example of scooters, eight operators are currently listed, with an authorized fleet of 100 vehicles each. We are going to select two companies that will circulate 1,000 to 1,500 machines. Our approach is therefore not to put an end to free-floating, but to better control it. This corresponds to the objective of intermodality led by the Metropolis. »
Many criteria
An intermodality that requires a better distribution of vehicles, currently too concentrated in certain areas of Bordeaux. This is why the selected operators will have to share the location of each of their vehicles with the services of the agglomeration. “We need a coherent deployment of vehicles around stations and connection areas. It is essential to help demotorization, ”says Patrick Papadato, Bordeaux assistant for mobility.
To this constant communication with the Metropolis must be added a strong reactivity of the technical teams to move the vehicles, within the framework of a distribution or just bad parking.
Concerning the intrinsic quality of the machines, the levels of environmental performance will be examined as well as the technologies developed on the equipment to ensure compliance with speed limits and exclusion zones. Several companies, such as VOI, have already equipped their scooters with a system that limits the vehicle to 10 km/h in the Sainte-Catherine sector, as requested by the town hall.
The Metropolis assures that it will also be attentive to the social criteria of the operators. The community insists on its reluctance regarding too much recourse to subcontracting. Finally, the services provided to consumers will be analyzed. “We will look closely at the rates applied, if training is offered to new subscribers, etc. », Specifies Isabelle Rami.
A multimodal app
To find the scooter or the bike closest to you, a Bordeaux resident must now open no less than nine different applications. An annoyance to which the services of the agglomeration wish to put an end thanks to a single application which would list all the objects available in free-floating.
“This is also one of the reasons why we ask operators to transmit the location of their vehicles, indicates the elected metropolitan. The bicycle plan that we support wants to see the development of an application that would list all the means of transport in the area, whether free-floating, tram or carpooling. »
In addition to the 11 operators already present, other companies could participate in the call.
Eleven operators
Of all vehicle types, 11 operators are currently vying for the streets of Bordeaux. On the scooter side, Bird, Bolt, Dott, Lime, Link, Pony, Tier and VOI share the cake. Several of these companies also offer bicycles, whether electric or mechanical. Thus, Bird, Bolt, Dott, Lime and Tier have bicycles, just like Pony and Zoov. The scooter market is less blocked since only Cityscoot and Yego are present, with 200 vehicles each. Note that Yego, which until last December offered electric bicycles and scooters, has temporarily withdrawn these machines from Bordeaux. In December, the town hall counted 846 scooters, 1,047 bicycles and 400 scooters.