Nextbike

nextbike
Industry Urban transport
Founded 2004 (2004)
Founder Ralf Kalupner
Headquarters Leipzig, Germany
Key people
 Ralf Kalupner (CEO)
Products Bicycle sharing systems
Website www.nextbike.net

nextbike is a German company that develops and operates public bike-sharing systems. The company was founded in Leipzig, Germany, in 2004. As of 2014, it operates about 20,000 bikes in Germany and several other countries around the world.[1] The headquarters as well as the production facilities with about 70 employees are based in Leipzig. The bicycles and stations are maintained by local service partners.

The bike sharing schemes can be initiated by cities and franchise partners. The operating costs are financed by rental fees and the sale of advertising space on the bikes themselves. nextbike also provides mobility programmes for colleges or universities and companies.

Usage

Bicycle users are normally obtained through a subscription system, where each bike is locked to either itself or to a rental station. If using a stand-alone lock, the bike is rented via a mobile phone call or the mobile app, which provides the locking code and times the usage. Returning the bike is done by phone (voice or data), and quoting a numeric code for the return location (if not returning to a docking station). Bikes can be left anywhere within a rental city, but a distance-based surcharge is applied if the bike is returned to a non-rental location.

Projects

nextbike operates in German cities such as Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg and Dresden.[2] The biggest implementations of the system in Germany are in Ruhr, with 3,000 bikes,[3] and Nuremberg, with 750 bikes and 66 stations.[4] Besides the big projects, nextbike focuses on about 20 smaller German cities, like Tübingen with only 40 bikes.[5] In 2015, nextbike will start to operate in Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim[6] as well as in Cologne,[7] in cooperation with public transport.

At international level, nextbike operates in Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Poland, New Zealand, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Dubai, Hungary, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States. Two of the biggest public bike rental schemes operated by nextbike are Veturilo[8] in Warsaw with 2,600 bikes and MOL BuBi[9] in Budapest. In 2014, several bike sharing schemes were launched in the UK, including the cities of Bath,[10] Glasgow[11] and Stirling.[12] In April 2015 a new public hire scheme was launched in Belfast, branded Belfast Bikes [13]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ nextbike company profile
  2. ↑ nextbike locations
  3. ↑ metropolradruhr project
  4. ↑ NorisBike project in Nuremberg (in German)
  5. ↑ The alternative to taking public transport in Tübingen is the bike-hiring system “nextbike”
  6. ↑ Das VRN-Mietrad (in German)
  7. ↑ KVB erweitert Mobilitätsangebot um Leihräder (in German)
  8. ↑ Veturilo scheme in Warsaw
  9. ↑ Bubi scheme in Budapest
  10. ↑ Bath to get cycling with city’s own ‘Boris Bikes’ scheme
  11. ↑ Glasgow unveils bike hire scheme at 31 city locations
  12. ↑ nextbike UK
  13. ↑

External links

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