Bicing incorporates a service to predict the availability of bicycles and drop-off points 

It will be launched in the autumn and will allow users to know whether they will find a bicycle or a free space at a station with 15 to 30 minutes prior notice  

The new service will help users to plan their journeys better, avoid unnecessary journeys and save time

This year is the 15th anniversary of the Bicing service, which now totals 7,000 bicycles and more 500 stations across the whole city 

Bicing users will know in advance whether they will find bicycles and free spaces at the stations. From this autumn, SMOU, the Bicing service’s official app, will incorporate a new predictive service that will allow users to know the availability at a station within 15 or 30 minutes of making a query. To this effect, subscribers will be able to plan their mobility options around the city better. 

SMOU already shows the number of bicycles and spaces available in real time. With the new functionality, users will also be able to know the predicted availability and, with this information, choose which station to go to.   

The information will be shown in a simple to understand way via the app. You will only have to select the station of interest and click on the new predicted availability button. This way, users will be able to know whether the probability of finding a bicycle or a space is high, medium or low. 

This will be made possible thanks to the incorporation of software that will consider variables like the historical record of availability at a station, the weather situation and the routes that the vehicles that replace the bicycles usually take. 

Presence at the Bicycle Festival 

This new predictive service was presented to coincide with Bicing’s 15th anniversary celebrations, which took place during the Bicycle Festival in Passeig Lluís Companys. Bicing had a stand at the festival where visitors were able to try the electric bicycles and take part in a scratch card competition with prizes to chose from that included annual subscriptions, points for the Bicing Game app and merchandising, among others.   

15 years of evolution, innovation and the promotion of sustainable mobility

Bicing is today one of Barcelona’s safest, most sustainable and healthy individual transport systems, and in the 15 years it has been in operation has been confirmed as one of the world’s highest-rated bicycle services. At European level, Barcelona is the city with the highest density of stations per square kilometre and the highest bicycle rotation level.   

It was launched in March 2007 with 200 bicycles and 14 stations, with the aim of promoting the use of bicycles as a sustainable form of public transport. That same year, the service increased exponentially to include 3,000 bicycles and 194 stations. Nowadays, it has a total of 7,000 bicycles, 3,000 of which are electric, and 519 stations.  

Bicing is a benchmark of its kind not only for its offer and service quality, but also because it was pioneer in the installation of a system that combines totally versatile mechanical and hybrid bicycles. It only requires installing an electric kit onto the vehicle’s chassis. 

More than 45,000 daily uses  

At the end of May, Bicing had more than 131,000 subscribers. More than 14 million uses were registered for the whole of last year, with an daily average of around 45,000 uses. So far this year, daily use is already over 47,000. 

More than 400 tonnes of CO2 saved

According to internal studies carried out by Barcelona City Council and BSM (Barcelona Municipal Services), last year the Bicing service saved around 200,000 journeys in fuel-driven vehicles. They would have been made by the 9% of users who would take their car or motorbike if this shared bicycle service did not exist. This reduction represents an annual saving of more that 400 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, the same amount as a wood the size of two Ciutadella parks or 62 Eixample blocks would absorb.