BICIKE(LJ), Slovenia's new bike-sharing service, launched May 12th in the capital of Ljubljana. Its name is a combination of a word "bicikel" (which I'll let you guess what it means in English) and "LJ", which is the registration motor vehicle mark and initial letters of Ljubljana. Customers will be able to pick up one of 300 bicycles from any of the 31 stations covering an area of approximately 12 square kilometers in a network where the terminals are not separated by more than 500 meters. The population of Ljubljana is 275,000 with at least 100.000 daily commuters and 45,000 students.
The service is a joint venture of the Municipality of Ljubljana and the advertising company Europlakat (a partner of JCDecaux in Slovenia). Even before the launch, 1,633 advance registrations had been made through their website -- http://en.bicikelj.si/. Registration is available for a year at three euros and a week at 1 euro. The first hour is free of charge, the second is 1 euro, third is 2 euros, and each additional hour is 4 euros. The service is operable 24 hours per day throughout the year.
Special thanks to Janez Bertoncelj, Ljubljana's cycling coordinator for assistance with this article.
1 comment:
Interesting subscription charges, as they are the cheapest I have seen. Aren't subscriptions a central part of a bike sharing scheme's funding? How will this one sustain itself with such low rates?
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