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📺 Barcelona's Bike-Share Saga: Episode III

A month ago, Mayor Collboni announced that Barcelona would not renew the licences of its private dockless bike-share operators, citing parking chaos and a fleet used "90% by tourists." The decision looked firm… It no longer does.

Bicing gets a major expansion

Collboni has announced that Bicing, Barcelona's public station-based bike-share scheme, will grow by 50% to reach 12,000 bikes over the course of the next term. The timing and scale of the announcement are not coincidental: removing 3,500 privately operated bikes from circulation without a credible alternative was the political weak point of the decision. A 4,000-bike expansion of Bicing is the mayor's answer — though it will take time to deliver, and the private licences expire in January 2027.

The expansion implicitly acknowledges what critics had been saying from day one: that dockless bikes were not only a tourist product. Opposition groups have argued that private shared bikes serve daily residents for intermodal connections and inter-neighbourhood trips, and that Bicing and the private operators are complementary, not competing. Collboni's willingness to expand Bicing suggests he accepts that removing 3,500 bikes will create a gap that needs filling — he just prefers a public solution to fill it.

For tourists and visitors, the mayor has pointed toward traditional bike rental agencies — private shops and operators who can serve occasional users without the parking compliance problems of free-floating fleets. What the city will actually do to help those businesses scale up to absorb displaced tourist demand is less clear. The model, as proposed, asks the market to fill a gap the city is creating, without specifying how.

The political revolt

Four opposition groups — Junts per Barcelona, BComú, ERC, and PP — have forced an extraordinary committee session of the Ecology, Urban Planning, Mobility and Housing commission, demanding Collboni reverse the decision of not renewing licences. Together, they hold enough council seats to impose the meeting, which must take place within 15 days.

Their argument is threefold. First, the decision was "precipitate" — taken without evaluating the real impact on mobility and without adequate stakeholder participation. Second, removing 3,500 bikes will "further collapse" Bicing, which is already oversubscribed in central areas. Third, the parking problem is real but addressable through regulation rather than removal. The four groups are not asking Collboni to simply keep the status quo. They are asking him to open a working process with operators to design a new regulatory framework — binding parking obligations, real-time data sharing, proportional sanctions for non-compliance, and a formal monitoring board meeting quarterly with operators, districts, residents' associations, and user groups.

The cross-party nature of the opposition is telling — BComú, ERC, Junts, and PP are not natural allies. Their alignment against Collboni signals that the mayor has misjudged the political weight of the issue. He governs with PSC alone and needs case-by-case support to pass significant decisions. The extraordinary committee is not a vote of no confidence, but it forces public debate and could produce a binding recommendation. Ignoring a cross-party majority on a visible urban mobility issue, in a city as politically contested as Barcelona, carries a real political cost.

The saga is not over. Barcelona's bike-share question has become, in the space of a month, one of the most politically charged urban mobility debates in Europe — and the outcome will say something important about whether cities can use tourism politics to justify removing services that residents also depend on.

🤝 Meet Thea, Alwin and Bella: Düsselbike launches

On 1 July 2026, Düsseldorf launched Düsselbike — and did so with a local touch: each bike has its own name, chosen by residents through an open call. Thea, Alwin, Bella, Atilla, Lars, Lotti. It is a small detail, but a telling one: this is a city that wanted its bike-share to feel local from day one.

From 500 to 2,500 in three months

The system launched with 500 bikes across 21 central districts, before expanding through further rollouts on 1 August and 1 September to reach 2,500 bikes across approximately 400 stations citywide. The bikes are mechanical — 8-speed, front basket, phone holder — built for utility. Pricing is accessible: €1 for 15 minutes, €10/month, or €60/year with 30 free minutes per trip.

Donkey Republic doubles down on NRW

The system is managed by Connected Mobility Düsseldorf (CMD), with Donkey Republic as operating partner — selected through a European-wide procurement. It is a significant win for the Danish operator, which already secured the Metropolradruhr contract in the same region earlier this year. Donkey Republic is now the operating backbone of two of the largest public bike-share networks in North Rhine-Westphalia simultaneously. ERGO, the Düsseldorf-headquartered insurance group, is the naming sponsor.

Two design choices stand out. First, bikes must be returned to a virtual station — if a user ends their trip outside a marked zone, the rental keeps running. A clear enforcement mechanism against the pavement clutter that has generated backlash elsewhere. Second, the service is available through both the Donkey Republic app and Redy, Rheinbahn's multimodal mobility app — giving Düsselbike immediate public transport integration from launch.

Mayor Stephan Keller's message at the launch was admirably concise: "Try it." Whether Thea and Alwin are still rolling five years from now will depend less on clever branding than on whether Düsselbike becomes part of residents' everyday routines.

LAUNCHES & EXPANSIONS 🚀

Beryl
Launch in Plymouth (GB) 🛴 (50)

Check
Launch in Breda (NL) 🚲 (200)

Donkey Republic
Launch in…

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PAUSES & EXITS ⛔️

Bird
Exit from Schaffhausen (CH) 

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TENDER WATCH 👀

🔴 Closed

 Ulm and New Ulm (DE) | 🛴 (900) & 🚲 (300)
◾️Dott wins the licence and continues operating in the city
◾️Concession lowers the cost to €0.20/min, plus -50% for PT annual members

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CITY UPDATES 🌐

Bari (IT) | A new shared mobility framework has been adopted, tenders will be published soon.

Barcelona (ES) | Mayor Collboni announces that the Bicing fleet will grow to 12,000 by the end of the term.

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INDUSTRY NEWS 🗞️

Bolt's rental business (bikes, scooters and cars) grew by 6% to €183m in 2025.

Dott vehicles are now available through Deutsche Bahn's DB Navigator in Germany.

Lime is now a public company, and raised $167m through its IPO.