New public bike-sharing system established in Ljubljana
BICIKE(LJ), a new public bike-sharing system, was launched on 12 May in Ljubljana. Its cute name is a combination of a word bicikel (which means bicycle) and LJ – registration motor vehicle mark and initial letters of Ljubljana. Users have a choice of 300 bicycles from 31 terminals covering an area of approximately 12 square kilometres in a network where the terminals are not separated more than 500 meters.
Bicycles are the same as in Vienna, the system itself is a joint venture of the Municipality of Ljubljana and advertising company Europlakat (a partner of J.C. Deceaux). 1633 registrations were made through internet page http://en.bicikelj.si/ before the official opening; registration is simple (based on credit card guarantee), and can be done annually (3 euros participation membership fee) or weekly (1 euro). The first hour is free of charge, the second is 1 Euro and the third 2 Euros, each additional hour is 4 Euros. The system operates 24 hours a day throughout the whole year. Ljubljana has 275,000 inhabitants and to this we can add at least 100,000 daily commuters that travel by car, along with 45,000 students, so this is an excellent opportunity for them to stop using cars or at least park them at P+R facilities, and start moving through the city by bicycle.
