Sergei Sobyanin: Moscow’s bike sharing is on the world’s top

Moscow will continue to develop the Velobike rental services. As from 2024 to 2026, the authorities plan to annually buy three thousand new-gen electric bicycles; in turn, VTB Bank is to invest in the local cycling infrastructure.

“Today, there are Velobike rental points in almost all districts of the capital, including outside the Moscow Ring Road, and in Balashikha near Moscow,” Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel.

Source: Sergei Sobyanin’s Telegram channel @mos_sobyanin

In the past, the eleventh (starting from 2013) bike sharing season in Moscow, there were in fact more than 780 points with installed domestic software, the rental fleet exceeding 10 thousand bicycles, almost half of which are electric bikes.

In 2015, the Velobike service was used on average three thousand times a day, while in 2023 this was a 4-times more often occasion (12 thousand times a day). Most users rent bikes to get to the metro, work or a meeting place. On average, it takes 39 minutes, covering four kilometers.

The latest thing in the 2023 season are electric bicycles 2.0 which do not require special stations, three thousand e-bikes having supplemented the rental fleet. So, you can start and end your ride at any personal transporter parking lot, Velobike employees quickly replacing batteries at the right time. The assistant system helps the rider pedal, and the engine turns off automatically at a speed of more than 25 kilometers per hour to ensure safety of pedestrians and other road users.

Last season, Velobike users made about 880 thousand rides on electric bicycles 2.0, each of them used for 6.8 rides per day, which is almost twice as much as older station bikes (3.6 rides per day).

In the future bicycles for the city’s bike sharing services will be assembled locally in Moscow.