Italian city-dwellers are set to join legions of eco-conscious cyclists in other urban hubs with a boom in its bike-sharing schemes. Several of Italy's main cities will this year implement community bicycle programs, in which municipal authorities provide bikes to the public to cut down on pollution and traffic jams.
Rome, Milan, Turin and Genoa have all unveiled bike-sharing schemes that will start operating in the next few months.
The capital is starting off cautiously, with a pilot project in the city centre offering around 250 bikes. Genoa, which is much smaller, will shortly have six hubs dotted around the historic centre, supplied with 60 electric bikes to help cyclists cope with the hills. Milan and Turin are setting their sights higher. By the start of May, Milan will boast 5,000 bicycles linked to 250 hubs. Turin has plans for 1,160 bikes at 100 hubs by the end of the year. Community bike programs have been around for several years and have generally proved popular. As well as reducing pollution, they are convenient link-on transport for commuters from outside the city, and are consistently faster than buses and cars, which tend to get snarled up in traffic. Users pick up a bike at one hub and drop it off at another. Usage is free for an initial period, usually between 45 minutes and three hours, after which a fee is paid. Most such schemes have traditionally been publicly funded but there are now various joint public-private ventures, which use advertising to raise cash. The new schemes will start bringing Italy in line with a number of other countries, where several major cities already have bike-sharing programs. Paris, Lyons, Barcelona, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Vienna are among those with successful schemes and London recently announced plans to join the club.
But according to Augusto Castagna, the coordinator of the Italian Association of Cyclable Cities, smaller Italian towns have also set an excellent example. ''There are actually around 100 Italian towns that already have bike sharing schemes in place,'' he explained. ''These programs have taken off because bike sharing works. It is a service that the public appreciates and has the advantage of being a swift, comfortable and cheap way to get around''. The northern town of Bolzano has spearheaded this move, with a 25-year history of encouraging cycling. Around a quarter of all journeys there are made by bike and it boasts 50km of cycling routes covering 80% of the town. Bari, Prato, Modena, Ravenna, Parma and Ferrara have also introduced successful community bike programs in recent years, with cheap rentals from points around the town. Meanwhile, Reggio Emilia has just signed up and Bresica is putting the final touches to a scheme to be launched this month, involving 250 bikes, with the first 45 minutes' rental free. ''In the future, we are looking at extending the project,'' explained Brescia Transport Councillor Ettore Brunelli.
''We eventually hope that a shared database could allow the same rental card to be used in several different towns. This would really help spread the word''.
