Bike sharing coming to Hungary in March

Velov, the bike-sharing system in Lyon.

In March, Szeged expects to beat out Budapest to become the first city in Hungary to roll out a bike-sharing system, according to Szeged Cafe.

The system, now getting its final touches, would naturally be much smaller than the one planned for Budapest, Bubi. It would comprise 70-80 bikes at up to 12 docking points spread around the centre of the city. Another 20-30 bikes would be kept at a central depot for longer-term rentals up to several days.

The new service is the creation of a private company, Szeged-based Sund Magyarorszag Kft, which developed it with the help of a HUF 45 million EU grant through the Southern Great Plain Regional Operating Programme. The system was first scheduled to open on September 30, but stumbling blocks forced a postponement until March.

As with similar systems, the bikes would be for short-term rentals for short-distance trips around a circumscribed central area. After a free registration, users would pay HUF 200 per hour or HUF 800 per day. Users who check out bikes more than four times in one day would have their daily bill capped at HUF 800.

According to original plans, the system is targeted at tourists and other visitors and is not meant to compete with Szeged's public transport system.

The system would be fully automated, with registration done online and checkouts by mobile phone. Users would get a four-digit PIN code to be typed into the station console in order to release a bike.

The bikes themselves have solid rubber tires, making them puncture proof and also less attractive to thieves. Another security feature is GMS tracking. Users who stray outside the central operating zone would receive automated SMS warnings. Messages would continue to be sent and if not heeded, a service security officer would be dispatched to search for the bike.

Bikes for Bubi?

With the help of HUF 25 million (EUR 88,000) in European Union subsidy, Hungarian bike maker Neuzer has developed a new bike-and-dock system, and it was presented last month in Budapest as the ideal technical solution for the upcoming Bubi bike sharing scheme.

On September 20, city and government officials held a press conference to show off Neuzer's new suite of equipment, including bikes, docking stations and payment consoles. The system took the Esztergom-based company two years to develop at a total cost of HUF 60 million (EUR 212,000).

Company President András Neuzer told the press that his developers looked at existing systems and tried to correct their imperfections. For instance, several theft-prevention features have been incorporated, including a GPS system that will track bicycle locations.

In general, however, the Neuzer system would work like others that have been implemented in hundreds of cities around the world in recent years. The bikes can be removed from the automated docking stations with a contactless card, used for short periods and returned to any other docking station in the city.

The Neuzer bike-sharing system was first shown off in 2011, at an international bicycling trade fare, Eurobike, in Friedrichshafen, Germany. At that show, 11 cities had inquired about using the system for their own bike-share schemes, the company claims. At the press conference, Neuzer said that several Hungarian communities have expressed interest in the product.

Pál Völner, state secretary in charge of infrastructure at the National Development Ministry, said at the conference that the Neuzer system and Budapest's BuBi bike-sharing scheme have been developed "in harmony" with one another in the interest of developing everyday transport cycling in the capital. Völner said Neuzer can apply for the equipment tender for Bubi, which is being implemented by BKK, Budapest's umbrella agency in charge of urban transport.

According to the BKK website, Bubi will comprise 1,000 bicycles at 75 docking stations -- 57 in Pest, 17 in Buda and one on the south end of Margit Island. The scheme would launch in the fall of 2013.

Neuzer would be at least the second factory in Hungary to produce technical equipment for bike-sharing systems. The Dutch-owned Accell Hunland, based in the Hungarian village of Tószeg, produced the original bikes for Paris's Vélib system.

Bubi Seeks Supplier

The sharp logo for Bubi
is a good start.

Work continues on Budapest's future bike-share system, christened "Bubi" according to a popular vote in the fall of 2010. Later this month, the search will begin for a system supplier -- a commercial enterprise that could provide bikes, docking stations, payment system and other technology and services that would make it go.

To this end, the city-owned company in charge of Bubi, the Budapest Transport Center (BKK -- Budapest Közlekedési Központ), has scheduled an "information day" on March 21 where would-be suppliers can present their goods. The event isn't public -- just interested contractors are invited.

The programme's agenda is here and those who have further questions are asked to contact Gergely Kovács and Péter Dalos of the engineering firm COWI Hungary Ltd., the subcontractor that did Bubi's feasibility study and other groundwork. Their email: kerekpar@cowi.hu.

Luckily for Budapest, public bicycle systems have quite some history by now, and BKK should have a good choice of suppliers: firms such as JCDecaux, Clear Channel and Next Bike have implemented and operate hundreds of similar systems throughout Europe and beyond.

But due to a peculiarity of Budapest's situation, Bubi's financial set-up could be tricky. The vast majority of the implementation costs will be funded by an EU subsidy (HUF 900 million or EUR 3.1 million), and this will apparently put certain constraints on how BKK finances the operating costs. Many other systems around the world partner with a big commercial sponsor (e.g. Barclay's Bike Hire in London) or an ad company (e.g. JCDecaux and Clear Channel). These arrangements lessen the burden on the municipal budget -- or at least create the illusion of doing so. However, due to the Bubi's big EU subsidy, such models may not be legally possible in Budapest.

Hopefully some clever ideas come up at this month's meeting, and the long-term prospects for Bubi will be more clear.

Taking Names

The would-be operator of Budapest's planned bike-sharing scheme, due to launch next summer, has posted an open invitation to give the system a catchy name.

Having posted the invite early last month, Parking kft., a wholly owned subsidiary of the city administration, has already collected more than 2,300 suggestions, available on a downloadable Excel sheet. At present, the default name is "KKKR," the Hungarian acronym for Bicycle Public Transport System. Definitely not as cute or as catchy as some of the existing bike-sharing names around the world: Vélib (Paris), DecoBike (Miami Beach) Nice Ride (Minneapolis) or Ecobici (Mexico City).

Not surprisingly, the great majority of submitted proposals involve a wordplay in the Hungarian language. That's fair enough. However, because Hungarian is such an oddball language, many of these names will go over the heads of non-Hungarian speakers, who will presumably constitute a small but important share of the system's target market. Even worse, some of the names would give non-Hungarians a misleading idea of what they refer to.

In the first category would be suggestions such as "Kerékváros," an amalgam of one of the many words for bicycle (kerékpár) and the word for city (város). It's good wordplay and descriptive of the system, but if you don't have specific knowledge of the magyar tongue, you won't get it.

Under the latter category of potentially misleading names are a few amusing examples. For instance, more than a couple sound -- at least to my American ears -- like names for a strip club or gay bikers' bar:

• BuBi
• Hop on me
• BooDbike

Then there's a surprisingly large number that suggest some sort of niche head shop targetting dreadlocked bike couriers:

• rollbud
• joint bike
• Overdose Bike (probably not one of the top contenders ...)

And there are these odds and ends:

• BikeKV -- I assume this is an allusion to Budapest Public Transport Co, popularly known by its Hungarian acronym "BKV." The problem with this is that the BKV, particularly at this point in time, is so widely loathed by the public that the connection would do much more harm than good. During the last two years, BKV became widely known as a hotbed of financial corruption, so much so that a public prosecutor litigating a case against one of the key perpetrators called it an "organised criminal enterprise."
• PubBike -- When I first saw this, I automatically assumed it was a simple combination of "pub" and "bike," meaning an ideal mode of transport for the pub crawler who doesn't want to risk a citation for drunk driving. On further consideration, I can see that it's more likely a shortening of "public bike." My initial interpretation probably says more about me than the person who submitted the idea.
• Nyeregbe magyar! -- In the current political climate, there had to be a few jingoisitic submissions. Literally it means (something like), "Into the saddle, Hungarian!" It's a play on the first words of the revolutionary National Poem by Sándor Petöfi. "Talpra Magyar ..." ("On your feet, Hungarian ...").

In my opinion, the better suggestions are those that use wordplay that works in multiple languages. A few that fit the bill, more are less, include:

• BiciPest
• VeloPest
• BiCity
• BikeBud (this one could be understood as "Bike Budapest" or "Bike Friend")
• FreeCikli

Anyway, the invitation is still open. If you want to give your two cents, send it by email to adjnevet@parking.hu.

New Details on Budapest Bike Sharing

Plans for Budapest's planned bike-sharing scheme are getting more and more specific in the lead-up to next summer's launch. City Hall recently sent off a detailed proposal of the scheme to the European Commission as the next step in its bid for a subsidy. Here's how the scheme is shaping up:

The new system will include 1,000-1,100 bicycles and cover the most densely built-up central part of the city, roughtly bordered by the Nagykorut and flat parts of Buda near the river. The service area will encompass about seven square kilometers, with 60 docking stations in Pest and 13 in Buda. Stations will be dispersed about every 300-400m, a density in line with global best practice.

The cost of the system has been more precisely estimated now: HUF 1.32 billion (EUR 5 million). Based on City Assembly decision on March 31, the system will be installed and managed by the city-owned company Parking Ltd., whose main responsibility is enforcing Budapest parking policy.

Each docking station will have on average 22 bikes and will be installed on road space now used for car parking or on sidewalks. Bicycles will be rented on a self-service basis with bank cards, credit cards, chip cards or mobile telephones. The system will run 24 hours a day, the first 30 minutes will be free-of-charge, and then there will be incremental charging. Testing will begin in June 2011.

A recent article on the system from the Hungarian News Agency is here.

Bike Sharing: a Boon or Bust?

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Over the last year or two, there has been a lot of hubbub about bike sharing due mainly to the massive system launched in 2007 in Paris, Velib. Now bike sharing is sweeping across Central and Eastern Europe, with systems already launched in Krakow, Bucharest, Ploieste (Romania) and Prague and plans or studies underway in Warsaw, Wroclaw and right here in Budapest.

I guess you have to be suspicious of anything that gets fashionable, as fashions fade. Bike sharing has always been a difficult proposition due to theft and vandalism, and although smart-card technology has mediated the problem, it's not a cure-all, as experience in Paris demonstrates.

In this region, as I argued in a recent article, we might be jumping into bike-sharing prematurely. In some cities, there's a basic need for safe places to ride, and if that isn't sorted out first, bike sharing could be a non-starter.

During a December visit to Bucharest, I learned that this is a concern for the Cicloteque sytem launched just last summer. With just 50 km of paths and an otherwise hostile environment for cyclists, Bucharest saw little use of the system during its first few months. Interest at the university-based service picked up somewhat when students returned to class in the fall, but it fell off drastically as soon as the weather turned cold. Cicloteque's been shuttered for winter as organisers seek a replacement for the original corporate sponsor, Unicredit Bank.

I won't say that bike sharing can never serve as a starting point, though. In Barcelona, for instance, the huge Bicing scheme launched in 2007 seems to have singlehandedly created a lively urban cycling culture where one hadn't existed.

I believe Budapest is a rare city in this region that is actually ripe for it (and any other cycling promotion measures). By now, there are scores of examples to examine around the world (see map), and Budapest will have to take care to find the most successful approaches in comparable contexts.