Nitra seeks to provide boost to local bike sharing service

The city wants to be able to include electric bicycles in its offer for shared transport

Bike-sharing has rapidly grown in popularity in the Slovak city of Nitra ever since it was first introduced a few years ago in 2017. The service has been a hit with residents who have been eager to ditch their cars and used the share bikes to get around the city.

In order to improve its offer, the city administration is now ready to take the next step. That is why it has launched a tender for a new supplier for its bike-sharing service.

The goals of the new push for improvement

Nitra local authorities have set themselves several main objectives that will be achieved with the new improvement.

On the one hand, the new provider should be able to incorporate the use of electric bicycles into the overall bike-sharing system. That would significantly improve the quality of the service and make it an even more attractive option for citizens.

Furthermore, the new provider will be responsible for boosting the service’s range to include hilly areas of the city that have previously been left out – such as Zobor, Klokocin and Cermany,

Finally, the local government wants to avoid a repeat of last year’s shenanigans that almost saw the scrapping of the bike-sharing system due to badly worded and unclear conditions and contracts signed with the previously responsible tender.

“We want to have clearly and transparently set rules so that we know when, how much, and how long we will be running bikes. I believe that as many people as possible will enter the competition and we will start the new bike-sharing in Nitra before the flight,” stated Mayor Hattas.  

The municipality also wants the successful bidder to be able to bring at least another 100 bikes to Nitra, along with the necessary infrastructure improvements, such as bike stands and others.

The expected launch date for the new bike-sharing service in Nitra is 1 June for conventional bikes and 1 September for the new electric bicycles.