ECF to launch Europe-wide bike sharing best practice platform

The European Cyclists’ Federation has announced a Europe-wide “Platform on Bicycle Sharing and Systems” initiative designed to assist providers with best practice implementation.

Pointing to a new era of data gathering and sharing, the ECF has noted a rapid growth across the globe in the appearance of bicycle hire and share. With many share systems around the globe hitting sustainability issues both in terms of profit and political will to invest, the ECF’s goals are:

1) To share bicycle mobility best practices, making them more accessible so
collaborative synergies can be developed

2) harness the political and investment resources to grow smarter bicycle sharing and allied systems all across the region.

When executed well, bike share schemes have been shown to provide a huge social and economic return on investment.

Platform participants in the ECF’s new initiative will be traditional PBS providers, system operators, “connected bicycle” manufacturers, peer-to-peer system facilitators, corporate leasing, cargo / rickshaw services, as well as related suppliers and stakeholders, including NGOs. Cities / urban planning organisations who operate their own local systems are also very much welcomed.

The ECF through its Cycling Industry Club is well placed to drive forward this Platform for European Bicycle Sharing & Systems (PEBSS).

Shared bicycle mobility has already been shown to help grow the entire market (and habit) of daily cycling. ECF’s considerable activities in Brussels will help place shared bicycle mobility at the centre of EU-wide policy and funding discussions on urban mobility and transport strategy.

Cycleurope’s President Tony Grimaldi, the CIC’s current chairman commented: “The CIC warmly welcomes companies with similar objectives; we’re thrilled to spur forward smarter shared bicycle mobility across Europe; it’s a guaranteed accelerator to grow cycling usage everywhere, making it the fulcrum of smart urban mobility.”

Among those enthused by the PEBSS platform are Nextbike, Cycleurope, PON, BikePlus, Stage Intelligence, the Accell Group and the North American Bikeshare Association.

Nextbike’s Director for International Development, Sebastian Schlebusch, commented: “Nextbike is committed to seeing ECF’s PEBSS initiative succeed; our bike sharing industry here in Europe must collaborate to grow the significance of cycling within the rapidly changing mobility industry, and deliver the smart solutions for our smart cities.”

PEBSS’ inaugural launch will take place on Monday 12-June 2017, the day preceding ECF’s Velo-city Conference in the Arnhem-Nijmegen city region of The Netherlands. Various working meetings of the PEBSS will be programmed to coincide with bicycle trade show events such as the Taipei Bike Show this March, and Eurobike in August.

Look out for further PEBSS announcements at ECF’s website.

Interested parties can connect with the new PEBSS at pebss@ecf.com.