Sweco designed the world’s most popular city bike system for Helsinki – Tampere is next

According to a study, the city bikes in Helsinki are the world’s most popular city bikes. Helsinki was compared to cities such as Paris, Barcelona and Copenhagen, which is particularly known for its cycling culture. Sweco will also be involved in the design of the city bike network in Tampere, Finland.

According to a study commissioned by the City of Helsinki, the city bike system in Helsinki is the most popular in the world. The system was compared to the systems of 50 cities from around the world. The indicator of popularity used in the study was utilisation rate, meaning the number of daily trips per bike.

“It’s great to see that the Helsinki city bikes are this popular, even on a global scale. People really have taken to this form of transport. This thorough comparison study helps us see how the system can be improved further in the future, and it also allows us to share our keys to success regarding city bikes with our partner cities and learn from one another,” says Deputy Mayor of Helsinki Anni Sinnemäki.

In the cycling season of 2018, more than 3 million trips were made with the city bikes and the number of users amounted to nearly 50,000, with the city bikes in Helsinki metropolitan area, Espoo included. Thanks to the expansion of the system and the extension of the metro line, the popularity of the city bikes increased from 2017, when 1.5 million trips were made in Helsinki alone.

“The cycling opportunities in the Helsinki metropolitan area have been improved, and the city bikes have been adopted as a part of smooth public transport, which can be seen in the results. Of course, due to the popularity of cycling, the city will need to establish new bicycle lanes and to develop the infrastructure even further,” says Mikko Raninen, Sweco’s project manager, who is in charge of designing the city bike network in Helsinki.

Sweco is also designing a city bike system for Tampere

Following the successful examples, the popularity of city bikes is growing in Finland, and systems are being planned in new cities, such as Tampere. The objective is for Tampere to have its own city bike system in 2020. The design process preceding the acquisition of the city bikes has started, and the City of Tampere is now collecting opinions from the residents via a survey regarding the service area of the city bike system and the qualities and use of the bikes.

“Tampere is developing its public transport to become carbon-neutral. A city bike system is one of the actions that will help with progress towards this goal, in addition to the upcoming tram line. City bikes will make it easier to get about via sustainable forms of transport, and cycling also involves health benefits that are significant for society,”says Niklas Aalto-Setälä, Sweco’s specialist in mobility services.

Further information:
Mikko Raninen, Project Manager, Sweco Ympäristö, tel. +358 40 867 5912, mikko.raninen@sweco.fi
Heini Jokinen, Press Contact, Sweco Finland, tel. +358 40 718 0063, heini.jokinen@sweco.fi