How did Prague and Brno perform in the European Bikesharing Ranking? We need more bikes

Paris leads the chart, having the 7th highest number of shared bikes per 10,000 residents. These bikes are also very well utilized, with 37 rides per 1,000 Parisians daily, totaling an average of 80,000 rentals each day. Other top cities include Antwerp, Ljubljana, Tartu, Toulouse, Lyon, Bologna, and Florence.

Prague and Brno

Prague, with approximately 1.3 million residents, has around 2,500 shared bikes, equating to about 20 bikes per 10,000 inhabitants. Brno, the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, with a fleet of approximately 600 bikes, offers even less—15 bikes per 10,000 residents. The number of bikes and their distribution throughout the city are key factors in the success of bike-sharing systems. The more bikes there are and the better they cover urban areas, the more effective the system will be.

In both cities, bike-sharing is mainly operated by companies such as Rekola and Nextbike, along with dozens of Lime e-bikes. In the ranking based on fleet size, Prague came in 57th place and Brno 37th.

Regarding the number of rides per capita, neither Prague nor Brno exceeds one ride per 1,000 residents daily. Prague ranked 66th in this measure, while Brno performed slightly better at 54th place. In the third evaluated parameter, rides per bike, Prague placed 65th, while Brno ranked a bit higher at 62nd.

Comparison with Central Europe

In the context of Central Europe, Prague and Brno trail behind cities like Wroclaw (23rd place), Warsaw (28th place), and Budapest (35th place), which not only have larger fleets but also significantly higher numbers of rides per capita. Conversely, cities like Bratislava (97th place) and Vienna (71st place) fared worse. Prague (66th place) is on par with Munich, Rome, and Stockholm in terms of bike-sharing. Brno ranks alongside Hamburg and Berlin.

Significant improvements: Stockholm, Frankfurt, and Copenhagen

The ranking also highlighted cities that have significantly improved over the past year. For example, Stockholm increased its number of rides by 239% due to a new bike-sharing operator, while Frankfurt improved by 100% thanks to better bike-sharing integration. In Turku, Finland, the number of rides per 1,000 residents rose by 81%, and Copenhagen operators saw a 48% increase.

Shared mobility helps meet EU goals

The report by Cycling Industries Europe aims to demonstrate how shared mobility can contribute to achieving the ambitious goals of the European Union for decarbonizing transport and promoting sustainable mobility by 2030. It states that the usability of bike-sharing systems significantly depends on their availability and distribution throughout the city. In many cities, bike-sharing operates only in central areas, leaving the majority of the population without access.

The final but significant parameter in the ranking, the „transparency indicator,“ evaluates how much of the bike-sharing fleet provides ride data and whether this data is publicly available. Prague has 88%, while Brno has 100%. Up to 46 cities do not provide any data, automatically placing them at the bottom of the ranking and distorting the actual results.