A bike sharing revolution for Antwerp
The Alderman for Mobility of Antwerp, Koen Kennis, and Erdem Ovacik, CEO of Donkey Republic, at the launch of the e-bike sharing system
In the Antwerp Urban Node a new electric bicycle scheme for the entire Functional Urban Area (FUA) was launched, including the deployment of more than 1,650 bikes at multimodal mobility hubs and Park & Ride stations.
Since 9th August people can take Koen, Scott, Ayris, Candide or Heleen to bike in and around Antwerp. Those are only some of the bike names of the new bike sharing system which SCALE-UP partner Lantis started to deploy in the Antwerp Transport Region. In total more than 1,650 bikes operated by Donkey Republic will be rolled out in the next months. Lantis will provide a basic network of 1,650 bikes while municipalities and also companies can invest in additional bikes in order to complement the network.
The Donkey bikes can be found at numerous virtual hubs that are often linked to multimodal hubs throughout the Antwerp Transport Region. As the hubs are set up virtually and no specific infrastructure is necessary, the network can easily be adjusted according to experience and demand. With this system, also temporary hubs can be set up, for example to be used during large events. The Donkey bikes are perfectly adapted to urban and sub-urban mobility and offer a simple booking functionality which reduces the hassle for citizens to rent bikes. That the bike sharing system also offers bikes in sub-urban and more rural areas makes it quite unique in Europe. It ensures that also citizens who live outside of the city have bikes available in their neighbourhood and by proxy raises their acceptance and the usability of the service on an everyday basis.
The planned network of virtual hubs for the Donkey bikes (blue dots = base network; red dots = supplementary network).
This measure is one of the many initiatives in the Antwerp Transport Region in which citizens are encouraged to switch from private cars to public transport or even better to active modes of transport such as cycling. The electric bikes are perfect for longer distances, for example for biking from one of the municipalities to the other, but also for biking to a nearby multimodal hub to switch to public transport. Or maybe next time you visit the city of Antwerp, you can leave your car at one of the three new P&Rs to take a Donkey bike to the city centre.
Park & Ride building in Antwerp (Copyright: Lantis)
Author: Friederike L. Kühl (STA); Franziska Kupfer (Lantis)