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 💶 Pay for the trip, not for the system

Traditionally, cities have funded bike-share at the system level: they pay to establish and operate a service, then work to attract riders. Prague and Bologna illustrate a more targeted approach. Both use privately operated fleets, but direct some public money towards particular journeys or users. Prague plans to pay more for rides that reach its outer districts; Bologna has combined a payment for the service with separate incentives for transit subscribers and other users. The idea is to be more precise about what each subsidy is meant to achieve.

Prague: paying more for peripheral rides

Prague’s planned bike-share contract changes the value of a subsidised ride according to where it starts or ends. Holders of a long-term Lítačka public transport pass will be eligible for free 15-minute rides on participating services, currently operated by Rekola and Nextbike. Once the new contract is in place, the allowance is expected to rise to up to four rides a day, capped at ten a week.

The city will apply a geographic coefficient to the price it pays operators: 0.5 in the urban core, 1.0 in intermediate areas and 2.0 in outer areas. A ride starting or ending in an area assigned the highest coefficient would therefore attract four times the payment of one confined to the core. Prague’s aim is to make bike-share more viable where demand is thinner and public transport less dense. Whether the higher payment delivers better bike availability in those areas will depend on how operators respond. The proposed contract is worth around CZK 50 million (€2.05 million) over roughly two years and could involve up to three operators.

Bologna: adding incentives to an existing service

Bologna takes a different route. RideMovi operates the city’s bike-share service under a concession. Riders pay to use it, while the city also makes a payment to the operator for the service. On top of that arrangement, Bologna has introduced incentives aimed at specific groups and uses.

• Public transport subscribers have been offered free RideMovi rides through a separately funded promotion, linking bike-share to the wider transit network.

• A Bike to Work initiative allocated apprix €90,000 to discounted passes for employees.

• A national Buoni Mobilità programme provided another €15,000 in vouchers for shared-mobility trips.

These measures serve different purposes. The payment to RideMovi supports the operation of the service; the additional funds encourage particular people to use it. That distinction gives the city room to adjust an incentive without redesigning the entire bike-share contract.

What can a targeted subsidy do?

The two cities are targeting different things. Prague targets place: it plans to pay more for eligible rides in areas where the economics of bike-share are less favourable. Bologna targets users: its free-ride promotion makes bike-share more attractive to people who already use public transport.

Neither approach proves, by itself, that a subsidised ride replaces a car journey. Nor does a higher payment for peripheral trips guarantee that bikes will be available when people need them. Those are outcomes cities would need to measure. What the schemes do show is a move towards stating more clearly why public money is being spent, and designing the payment around that purpose.

More precise, but harder to sustain

Targeting also creates a risk for riders: a benefit funded through a separate programme may disappear while the underlying service continues. Bologna offers a recent example. The city’s promotion of free rides for public transport subscribers ended on 11 February 2026. RideMovi bikes remained available, but subscribers could no longer rely on the same fare benefit.

That matters because people plan journeys around prices they expect to remain available. A targeted subsidy needs more than a clear objective; it needs dependable funding and simple communication when the rules change.

Prague and Bologna show two ways to make public spending on bike-share more specific. Prague proposes paying more for eligible rides in areas it wants operators to serve. Bologna has used additional funds to make an existing service cheaper for selected users. The test is whether these targeted payments produce the intended benefits—and whether cities can keep those benefits reliable enough for people to use them.

🏙️ City Perspective #1 - Nantes Métropole

In our new City Perspective series, we hand the mic to the public authorities shaping Europe’s shared mobility markets. We begin in Nantes, where 2026 marks the transition from the publicly supported Bicloo bike-share system to a privately run service operated by Voi. We spoke with Simon Citeau, Vice-President for Mobility at Nantes Métropole, about why the city chose this model and what it hopes to achieve

Beyond bikes, what shared mobility services are available in Nantes today?

There are two main categories: bikes and car-sharing. Car-sharing has a long history here. Marguerite, our longstanding operator, has been joined over the years by Citiz and Getaround. All three run station-based services in public space under a licensing scheme, with a total of 114 cars and 85 stations.

Marguerite is finding a sustainable business model, and Citiz is doing well. Allowing several operators, alongside strong demand from residents, has helped each find its place…

This Top Story, featuring exclusive analysis and Fluctuo data, is now available exclusively to Premium subscribers. Upgrade your subscription to unlock this story and get access to our exclusive insights from next week onwards.

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