Metropolitan Bicing system integration is now a key objective for Barcelona’s city planners as they prepare to renew the service’s decade-old contract.
According to a report by Tot Barcelona, the municipal government is drafting a strategy for the bike-sharing scheme’s future.
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The current agreement, signed in 2017, is due for renewal within two years, prompting officials to explore transforming Bicing into a unified metropolitan network.
This potential expansion aims to address the service’s uneven success. While bike-sharing has thrived in the capital, its adoption in smaller surrounding municipalities has been more limited. Consequently, a shared metropolitan strategy could create stronger incentives and improve connectivity beyond Barcelona’s city limits. The existing AMBici system, already operating in 15 nearby towns, represents a separate network, though a discount scheme for combined use was introduced in 2022.
Metropolitan Bicing System Faces Technical and Contractual Hurdles
However, significant obstacles remain. A primary challenge is the misalignment of contract expiration dates between Barcelona’s Bicing and the AMB’s AMBici. This discrepancy complicates launching a joint tender in the short term. Furthermore, technical integration requires a metropolitan-scale agreement, though precedents for intermunicipal mobility collaboration exist, such as shared parking and loading zone apps.
Advocacy groups strongly support the metropolitan vision. The Bicicleta Club de Catalunya (BACC) argues that a unified service would enable longer journeys and create connections that currently don’t exist. They note significant bicycle traffic in neighbouring cities like L’Hospitalet and Esplugues de Llobregat, suggesting strong latent demand for an integrated system. This push for better regional transport links echoes wider efforts to improve connectivity, as seen in recent promises for Rodalies commuter rail improvements.
Beyond expansion, cycling advocates have outlined three urgent priorities for the forthcoming tender. Firstly, they demand a substantial increase in the number of available bicycles. The service has gained approximately 65,000 users over two decades, with over 60,000 daily trips on a weekday—a third more than in 2019. With only 7,000 bikes currently in circulation (set to rise to 8,000 next year), and a percentage constantly under repair, availability is critically strained.
Safety and Reliability Top User Concerns
Secondly, campaigners insist the new contract must rigorously address safety and maintenance. Users frequently encounter bicycles with faulty brakes, loose seats, or flat tyres. Mònica Enrich, president of the BACC, emphasises that bike-sharing should be treated with the same reliability standards as other public transport. She calls for detailed contractual mechanisms to ensure proper upkeep and allow municipal intervention if maintenance fails.
The third priority is implementing a self-regulating station system. Data indicates consistent service failures in northern neighbourhoods and at the city’s edges near the Llobregat and Besòs rivers. Bikes tend to flow from north to south towards the sea but do not return, creating distribution imbalances. The BACC advocates for a system of user incentives or more redistribution trucks to solve this chronic problem.
The concept of a metropolitan Bicing is not new. Former mayor Jordi Hereu, who launched the service, previously expressed his desire for metropolitan implementation. The system’s popularity is undeniable, consistently gaining users, especially after the introduction of electric bikes, which now account for seven out of ten journeys. While user satisfaction remains relatively high, recent internal studies point to a deterioration in service quality, highlighting the need for the planned overhaul. The city’s focus on sustainable mobility is part of a broader shift, which also includes a recent cultural and linguistic tourism strategy.
Ultimately, the renewal of the Bicing contract presents a pivotal opportunity. Barcelona must decide whether to simply refresh an existing service or ambitiously reimagine it as the backbone of a fully integrated, reliable, and expansive metropolitan cycling network. The decisions made in the coming months will shape urban mobility for the next decade.
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