Bicycle group: Car-sharing before bicycle-sharing ‘running before you can walk’

The Bicycle Advocacy Group has demanded that a public bike share scheme such as Paris’s Velib or London’s ‘Boris bikes’, be implemented for the public in response to Transport Malta’s call for a formal Public Car Sharing (PCS) scheme.

“The multi-city and very successful NextBike scheme is located in 80 countries with over 30,000 bicycles across four continents,” BAG spokesperson James Wightman said.

“In this way the public would understand what a public bike share scheme was and how it worked, making the transition to the same idea with a car easier. Floating the concept on a cheaper bicycle based platform in its experimental stages first make good economic sense."

Transport Malta has said it will be issuing a tender for bicycle sharing in the coming weeks. "Transport Malta is putting an emphasis on building bicycle infrastructure which is very lacking in Malta. TM is preparing a national cycling policy which gives direction in this sense. The National Transport Master Plan 2025 focuses on the importance of bicycle infrastructure as well. BAG in fact supported most of the measures and contributed constructively in both documents," a TM spokesperson said.

Bicycle-based PBS can be an excellent way to test the waters cheaply with minimum impact on public road space, the group said. “Talking car sharing before we have a working bike sharing is simply trying to run before you can walk, we and the general public need a secure understanding and familiarity with our own public bike share first. Then people will be 100% behind it when they see how well it works with bikes,” BAG's James Wightman said.

BAG also referred to recent calls for a charging point for electric cars in every home, pointing out that currently every house and flat in Malta already has a charging point for a pedelec or electrically-assisted bicycle.

BAG called on the government to sort out the very negative and damaging policy currently restricting the growth of the 250W electrically-assisted bicycle or pedelec market.

The group is requesting for the removal of the need for owners to register 250W pedelecs themselves and to treat them as normal pedal bicycles in line with EU regulations.

Malta is the only EU state to restrict 250W pedelecs in this way and unlike cars, owners themselves have to go to both test and register them themselves.

Various industry sources have stated that pedelec sales have fallen by as much as 75% with some retailers citing this as high as 90% in the last year.

“Pedelecs are great for Malta. They help with hills, reduce fears of sweating and open up bicycle commuting to an increasingly obese public who lack exercise opportunities. In Europe it’s big business with a new e-bike service industry creating growth. It’s a win-win situation that we have turned into a lose-lose one,” the group said. 

In a reaction, Transport Malta said it will be issuing a tender for bicycle sharing in the coming weeks.  

“Transport Malta is putting an emphasis on building bicycle infrastructure which is very lacking in Malta. Transport Malta is preparing a national cycling policy which gives direction in this sense,” a spokesperson for the authority said.  

“The National Transport Master Plan 2025 focuses on the importance of bicycle infrastructure as well.  BAG in fact supported most of the measures and contributed constructively in both documents.”