Technical advice for the metropolitan bike-sharing system
VAIC Mobility advised the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) and TMB on drafting the technical specifications for the tender of the AMBici metropolitan public bicycle service, the bike-sharing system covering the Barcelona metropolitan area.
The tender, with a base budget of 60.8 million euros and an eight-year contractual duration, established the conditions for the supply, installation, operation, maintenance, and redistribution of the service in 15 metropolitan municipalities: l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Badalona, Cornellà de Llobregat, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, el Prat de Llobregat, Esplugues de Llobregat, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Sant Joan Despí, Sant Just Desvern, Molins de Rei, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Viladecans, Gavà, and Castelldefels.
Scope of technical advice
The specifications were drawn up based on accumulated knowledge of public bicycle systems and adapted to the specificities of a metropolitan service: greater distances between stations, a much broader territorial extent, and the need for coordination among different administrations.
VAIC Mobility’s advice covered the definition of technical requirements in the key aspects of the service:
- Fleet: between 2,000 and 2,600 bicycles, all electric, with detailed criteria on typologies and minimum features.
- Stations: location and sizing of the 236 parking stations, including typologies and criteria for energy autonomy through photovoltaic panels.
- Integration: coordination with Barcelona’s Bicing service and the metropolitan public transport network to ensure intermodality.
- Technology and service: requirements for the management platform, the user app, access IT systems, maintenance conditions, minimum service levels, and tariff systems.
Result
The service was awarded to the UTE formed by Nextbike, Movement, and Movus for an amount of 40.5 million euros, and became operational during the last quarter of 2022.
