During the months in which Bicimad, Madrid’s public electric bicycle system, has been free, 7.6 million people have used it, the City Council’s Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility delegate, Borja Carabante, reported this Thursday.
Free travel, which consisted of trips of up to 30 minutes on public bicycles being free for all users, will now give way to a “simpler” pricing system, based on a monthly flat rate of 10 euros. or the possibility of paying 50 cents for every half hour of travel.
In the press conference after the Government Meeting, Carabante gave an “extraordinarily positive” assessment of the Bicimad free period, which started in March 2023, coinciding with the expansion of the system to the 21 districts of the city and with the replacement of old bicycles with a newer model, and has been extended until January 2024.
Carabante has argued that the free provision has been extremely positive because the “objective” that the Government pursued has been achieved, that is, that citizens, “especially” those in those areas where Bicimad arrived for the first time, “know about the benefits and advantages of using this sustainable mobility transport and became regular users.”
“From March 7 to the end of January (2024), 7.6 million Madrid residents have used the Bicimad service. To give you an idea of ??this figure, in the entire year of 2019, 3.5 million people used it. million, that is, twice as many during these free months as in 2019,” Carabante explained, highlighting that January has been the “most important month of all”, insofar as “we have exceeded one million users”, which is “almost four times more” than in January 2019.
Carabante has also recognized that the municipal government estimates, “logically”, that “the demand for Bicimad will be reduced due to the end of the free period.”
“I think it makes a lot of logic and a lot of sense,” said Carabante, who estimates that after free there will be around 40,000 daily users, a figure that, however, represents “four times more than the users there were before implementing this system.” new public bicycles.
The PP delegate added that, however, the municipal government has taken “two decisions that will minimize this decrease in demand” after free.
“First, we have brought Bicimad to all the districts (…), in such a way that having such an extensive network we are going to have more users than there were with the previous system, and, secondly, we have implemented a tariff system more favorable than it was previously,” he added regarding the flat rate of 10 euros per month that may be available from now on.
Another option, beyond this flat rate, will be to pay 50 euro cents for every half hour of travel, which will facilitate the use of Bicimad for “sporadic” users.
“We must remember that with the previous system you had to get a card, you had to be paid, and now with the credit card you pay 50 cents and you can use it for half an hour. This does not deter many non-regular, sporadic users, tourists, who can come without paying a subscription,” he explained.
