A study places French cities as the most efficient in Europe in terms of shared bicycles, and highlights certain under-exploited or even non-existent offers, others over-sized.
France loves cycling and especially shared cycling. Paris is the showcase with the Vélib and self-service electric bikes Lime, Dott or Tier, while other large cities have had a more or less similar offer for a long time. But did you know that our country was a reference in Europe? This is what we learn from a comprehensive study of 128 cities carried out by Cycling Industries Europe (CIE).
France well placed, but varying situations depending on the city
In the CIE report, Paris is by far at the top of the cities where bicycles are most used and available. With 39.9 journeys per 1,000 inhabitants per day, the capital is ahead of another French city. Bordeaux is second with 30.7 journeys per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 28 journeys for Antwerp (Belgium). Toulouse and Lyon complete the top 5 with 21.2 and 18.9 journeys. This original data makes it possible to measure a rich bicycle supply and balance between the number of usable bicycles and the number of trips per bicycle.
This therefore does not mean that Paris has more self-service and in-station bicycles, since Bordeaux is first with more than 110 per 1000 inhabitants, ahead of Grenoble and Antwerp (between 80 and 85). The capital is only 7th (around 50), while Toulouse closes the top 10 (35.4 bicycles per 1000 inhabitants).
However, we note that the 10 cities with the highest number of trips per capita are logically ranked high, and are in the top 30 in terms of bicycles available per capita. At the bottom of the ranking, more than thirty cities have less than 0.08 bicycles per inhabitant, which according to CIE “20% of the limit of an efficient shared bike offer”.
Which cities have too many or too few shared bikes?
A graph shows us the relationship between availability and usage, showing the big differences from one European city to another. If Grenoble has a lot of bicycles, it does not reach the use of Antwerp, a signal of an oversizing of the fleet like Brussels or Frankfurt. On the contrary, CIE cites Lyon, Valencia (Spain) and Wroclaw (Poland) as models of balance.
A second graph linking the number of trips per inhabitant and bicycle trips shows the potential of certain cities. Paris is 3rd with more than six trips per bike. The worst performer would be Bilbao (Spain) n°1 with more than 7 daily journeys by bicycle, followed by Karlsruhe and Dresden (Germany).
These cities with low use per capita therefore need to increase their fleet. On the other side of the graph, Bordeaux and Milan undoubtedly have too many bicycles, with less than 3 trips per day per bicycle, but with a high rate compared to the population.
Do you need electric bikes to perform?
We are mainly interested in electric bikes at Frandroid. But are they absolutely necessary for the success of services in Europe? Obviously, since only four cities in the top 10 with an exposed trip/inhabitant ratio have them. CIE rightly adds that VAEs are appreciated in the regions “in uneven, hot or windy weather”but that they are not generalized due to “high price to rent and operate”.
On the other hand, the offer of bicycles in fixed stations, such as Vélib’ in Paris, Vélo’V in Lyon or V3/Le Vélo in Bordeaux, seems to be a factor of success: six cities in the top 10 only have this type of offer .
Large cities still without shared bikes
Finally, the study lists the missing large cities, for the simple reason that they do not have shared bicycles. This is the case of the metropolis of Gdansk (Poland) despite 750,000 inhabitants, Tarragona-Reus (Spain) close to 500,000 souls or Varna (Bulgaria) with nearly 400,000 inhabitants. In contrast, we note that the Estonian city of Tartu has 750 bicycles despite less than 95,000 inhabitants.
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