Skip to main content

European bike sharing market fuelled by innovations and government support

New research by Frost & Sullivan, European Bike Sharing Market, Forecast to 2025, indicates that the bike sharing fleet will more than double in size from 151,302 units in 2016 to 341,250 units in 2025. Southern and Western Europe have high public bike sharing service (BSS) activity. About 196 cities in Southern Europe have more than 35,000 rental bikes; in Western Europe, 150 cities have nearly 70,000 rental bikes. Spain and France are the strongest markets, but the UK, Germany and Italy are expanding quic
February 7, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
New research by 2097 Frost & Sullivan, European Bike Sharing Market, Forecast to 2025, indicates that the bike sharing fleet will more than double in size from 151,302 units in 2016 to 341,250 units in 2025. Southern and Western Europe have high public bike sharing service (BSS) activity. About 196 cities in Southern Europe have more than 35,000 rental bikes; in Western Europe, 150 cities have nearly 70,000 rental bikes. Spain and France are the strongest markets, but the UK, Germany and Italy are expanding quickly.

As densely populated urban centres all over the world grapple with issues of rising fuel consumption and carbon emissions, green mobility solutions such as public bike sharing service (BSS) are rising to prominence. This shift away from personal cars towards sustainable mobility solutions is bolstered by the high parking fees, volatile fuel costs and growing congestion in busy urban areas.

Although BSS enjoys escalating demand, high insurance costs could prove a deterrent to its wide-scale adoption. Furthermore, safety guidelines of bike sharing programmes are often not aligned with those mandated by insurance schemes, necessitating deeper analysis and resolution of the insurance issue.

“Urban commuters are considering multiple mobility options to optimise travel time and convenience for short distance travel of less than five kilometres,” said Frost & Sullivan mobility research analyst Debanjali Sen. “Consumer interest has prompted several BSS operators to explore integration of bike sharing with public transit and other modes of shared transport such as car sharing/ride sharing on a unified digital platform for ease of payment and bookings.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Transit’s Covid clean-up operation
    August 24, 2021
    The onset of Covid-19 saw ridership on public transport slump drastically. How will the organisations that provide these essential services persuade customers back on board?
  • Volkswagen emissions – ‘a missing global standard is the issue’ say UK organisations
    September 24, 2015
    The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and research organisation Frost and Sullivan have both commented on the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, which has resulted in the resignation of CEO Martin Winterkorn. The world's biggest carmaker by sales has admitted to US regulators that it programmed its cars to detect when they were being tested and altered the running of their diesel engines to conceal their true emissions. Winterkorn said, “I am shocked by the events of the past few days. Above
  • Rating agency Standard and Poor Tolling sees a bright future for tolling
    September 6, 2017
    Few disruptions appear on the horizon for global toll road operators, with the US poised to become a better bet for major investment, according to ratings agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P’s) Global Ratings’ 2017 report, which rates toll road operators according to their ability to raise capital. The outlook is generally stable for business conditions and credit quality for toll roads worldwide. One positive exception is the US where the overall outlook is ‘positive’ as S&P expects traffic growth to increase
  • TRB 2024 challenge spurs smart transportation innovation
    January 24, 2024
    The Center for Urban Informatics and Progress at UTC, Amazon Web Services, the National Science Foundation, the City of Chattanooga and ITS America sponsored the Transportation Forecasting Competition at TRB 2024: and the challenge threw up some fascinating projects