EcoBici (Buenos Aires)

EcoBici
Overview
Owner City of Buenos Aires
Locale Buenos Aires, Argentina
Transit type Bicycle-sharing system
Website ecobici.buenosaires.gob.ar
Operation
Began operation 2010
Technical
System length 155 km (96 mi) (2015)
System map

The network in 2014
Yellow indicates completed lanes, green indicates lanes under construction and blue indicates projected lanes.

EcoBici is a Bicycle-sharing system in Buenos Aires, Argentina which began operating in 2010. The service is free of charge to both residents of the city and tourists, and is available 24 hours a day. The system is still being expanded and, as of 2015, has 155 km (96 mi) of its 200 km (120 mi) of lanes completed, and will have a total of 3,000 bicycles and 200 stations when complete in May 2016.[1][2] Most stations are automatic and require the use of a smart card acquired upon registering for the service, though there are also staffed manual stations.

Overview

A cycle lane in the city.

Construction began on EcoBici's lanes and stations in 2009, and the service was opened to the public in 2010, with just 3 stations and 72 bicycles. However, by 2013 these numbers quickly grew to 29 stations and 800 bicycles.[3] The system's expansion has been fairly rapid and will eventually have 200 km (120 mi) of lanes, 200 stations and 3,000 bicycles when completed.[4]

By the end of 2014, the stations became automated (with the exception of a few) and registered users could now access bicycles 24 hours per day with use of a smart card, while the number of stations had grown to 49. With the expansion of the system, 5,000 additional parking areas for bicycles were added throughout the city.[5][6]

Bikes can be retired with the use of a smart card or by use of a mobile phone application, which require proof of identification in order to attain. Tourists can register online using a scanned ID or by visiting a local municipality office. In both cases, the usage of the bicycles is free.[7][8]

In the case that a bicycle is not returned on time, the user is banned from one week from the service, increasing exponentially with repeat offenders until the fourth offence when the user is banned definitively from using the service.[9]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to EcoBici (Buenos Aires).
  1. ↑ Cómo funcionará el sistema EcoBici en la Ciudad - Terra, 30 May 2013.
  2. ↑ Mon, Mariana (7 January 2016). "Retiraron la mitad de las bicis públicas por un plan para renovar la flota". La Nacion. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  3. ↑ El sistema más humano de bicicletas compartidas está en Buenos Aires - World Bank, 7 March 2013.
  4. ↑ Más de 2 millones de viajes en el sistema gratuito Ecobici - Buenos Aires Ciudad, 29 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Ya está funcionando el Sistema Automático EcoBici - Buenos Aires Ciudad, 8 April 2015.
  6. ↑ Estacionamiento de bicis - Buenos Aires Ciudad
  7. ↑ Como Registrarse - Buenos Aires Ciudad
  8. ↑ EcoBici para Turistas - Buenos Aires Ciudad
  9. ↑ ¿De qué se trata la propuesta Ecobici? - Universia, 2 June 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.