The inauguration of the new public bicycle rental scheme in Madrid was not without major hitches, such as many of the docking stations having blank screens and those that were working not having any bikes.
The only electric bicycles actually in operation were those ‘given’ to dignitaries, cycling associations, reporters and various experts, a total of 70 bikes out of a purported stock of 1,560 units.
Where screens were working, they were apparently slow and often froze before completing the customer request. Not that there were any bicycles available anyway. But at least Mayor Ana Botella had the chance to become one of the first people to pedal from City Hall to Retiro Park.
The elctic bicycle scheme is operated by BiciMad with 1,560 bicycles being (theoretically) available at 123 docking stations throughout Madrid. The company has promised to look into and rectify the inauguration day glitches in the system.
The Mayor reportedly said that public rental bikes were “the missing piece of the puzzle” in Madrid’s urban mobility policy, and described the computerized registration system as “easy, intuitive and very easy to use”. Not quite how it panned out in reality but presumably she didn’t have to use it herself.