Bike Sharing in the northernmost capital of the EU: Helsinki

The Finnish capital Helsinki will see the start of a brand new bike sharing scheme from early summer 2016 onwards. The initial fleet will have 500 city bikes and 50 bike stations. The aim is that the bike fleet will consist of 1500 bikes and 150 stations in 2017. Helsinki City Transport's city bike scheme is now at the stage of assessing offers by three possible service providers. The first consortium is made up of Nevia Oy and Nextbike GmbH. The second one pools together Clear Channel Finland, Smoove SAS, Moventia and Helkama. The third consortium is joined by Suomen kaupunkiautot Oy (City Car Club), Tracetel SA and Unicom Consulting Oy. The board of Helsinki City Transport decides on the service provider in October-November. A part of the procurement process is to evaluate the usability of the city bike systems proposed by the potential service providers. In the evaluation, impartial users rate the bikes offered by the providers. The evaluations given by the user groups will be scored and will count towards the final procurement decision. Bringing a city bike system to Helsinki supports the city's vision of enlarging the share of biking within the public transport system.Bike sharing is a citizen-centred effort and the experiences of users are therefore a key element in the procurement process. Cyclists can use the new system after registering with their Helsinki Region Transport travel card. The system is meant to complement the collective public transport chain. Read more here.