Madrid is full of electric bicycles pulled by all the neighborhoods of the center: From the Castellana, passing through the Retiro area or the Atocha station, to the outskirts of the cathedral. In any corner. A pity. This ecological mobility service in the capital, called Bicimad, is free from March 7 to July 31.
Due to the fact that it is free, some citizens are misusing it by leaving their bicycles parked or thrown anywhere without leaving them in the 611 parking lots prepared for it.
The first days of free operation caused problems, since the service was charged, and the City Council argued that the excess billed would be returned to users, since the objective is to encourage the use of this ecological means of transport for short journeys. Now comes the second problem: misuse by citizens.
After almost three weeks of free use, some users are making disastrous use and leaving them lying anywhere, without parking. Faced with this situation, other citizens -and also users- complain about the aforementioned bad practices, as well as the inactivity on the part of the Madrid City Council.
Bicycles lying around all corners of the city, when it is a means of transport that has a high cost, both acquisition and maintenance. Each electric bicycle can be worth more than 6,000 euros, according to industry sources.
Pediatrician David Andina complains on Twitter that “until 15 days ago, Bicimadrid was a decadent public service.” To which he adds: “After its expansion, which has cost 50 million euros, Almeida and Carabante have charged it. You couldn’t be more useless.” The tweeter has taken photographs from the Toledo Bridge to the San Isidro Bridge to show that people leave them lying down anywhere. He has also taken images of other areas, such as the surroundings of the Riviera or the Prague Bridge to show that bicycles are not parked anywhere. He even invites other users to do the same.
Enrique Alex, winner of the best travel youtube award in 2022, likewise criticizes that “the neighborhood of Justice is full: less in stations, everywhere.” And he continues: “If you love your city a little, it should already hurt you to see how a public electric bike service that once was great has ended like this: without bicycles in the stations, without managers and with hundreds of lost bikes.”
The City Council led by José Luis Martínez-Almeida has made 7,500 electric bicycles and 611 stations available to citizens to locate them.
Little by little, different users of social networks are being encouraged to upload photographs to demonstrate their misuse. Miguel Ángel Medina criticizes: “Most of the bicimad stations are without bicycles, there are abandoned bikes everywhere, they continue to charge you for routes that are free and do not return what was charged.” In addition, he continues, “the application does not work and the phone is saturated … Almeida has loaded a public service.” To guarantee availability for all users, a bicycle cannot be used for more than 30 continuous minutes. That is, you can make all the trips that are necessary per day, but at the end of the journeys, you must leave all the vehicles at the bases. In addition, during these months, new subscriptions and their renewals are completely free.
To alleviate what is happening these days, the City Council has asked the people of Madrid to “report incidents with bicimad and the disappearance of bicycles to 010.” Even in some neighborhoods, videos are already circulating, with children driving them on the sidewalks. A recklessness.
