The Rise of Bike-Sharing: Key Results and Opportunities for the Future

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December 16, 2024

In 2024, the bike-sharing market in Europe continues to grow, driven by ambitious sustainable mobility initiatives. The Shared Ambition 2024 report, published by Cycling Industries Europe (CIE), provides a compelling overview of the performance of 148 European cities and identifies growth levers for this rapidly evolving sector.

Impressive Performances and New Players
Paris and Antwerp lead the rankings with 37 and 36 trips per 1,000 inhabitants per day, respectively. These figures highlight the successful integration of bike-sharing into their mobility ecosystems.
Newcomers like Ljubljana and Tartu have secured spots in the Top 5, emphasizing the importance of tailored geographic coverage and increased accessibility.

Enormous Growth Potential
The report estimates that if all the studied cities matched the performance of the top 5, it would result in:

• 1.8 million additional daily trips, or 650 million annually.
• An annual reduction of 270,000 tons of CO₂ with just 20,000 additional bikes.

Key Success Factors

• Fleet Size: Cities with at least 50 bikes per 10,000 inhabitants perform better. However, simply increasing fleet size does not guarantee success.
• Economic Accessibility and Electrification: While only 21% of fleets are electric, these bikes account for 30% of trips.

A Call for Ambition
The report encourages cities to:

• Expand fleets to achieve adequate coverage.
• Invest in infrastructure and public support to ensure services are accessible to all.
• Leverage open data to measure and optimize performance.

Investing to Transform Urban Mobility
An investment of approximately €325 million for 270,000 bikes could catalyze a major transformation in European cities. As a cornerstone of decarbonization and active mobility policies, bike-sharing is emerging as an essential solution for sustainable urbanization.

The full report is available here.