More fines than vehicles: the bike-sharing mess in Barcelona

BarcelonaAt the end of August, a turquoise bicycle parked in the middle of the sidewalk on the side of Gran Vía forced pedestrians to avoid it. It remained there for more than four hours. It wasn't an artistic intervention or a spontaneous homage to pedaling. It's an increasingly common scene in the Catalan capital; that of shared bicycles—called bike sharing– parked haphazardly. They're easy to find in crowded places like Rambla de Catalunya or Calle Consell de Cent, but they can also be blocking access on narrow sidewalks. They can even be found at the entrance to Barcelona City Hall, in Plaça Sant Jaume, or Plaça Sant Miquel.

The disarray is evident from a stroll through the city center at any time of day. White, red, blue, turquoise, or green bicycles are parked out of place, often carelessly. Only on Wednesday afternoon was it possible to see one of these blue vehicles parked in the middle of Cathedral Square, propped up in front of the benches where people sit and rest. A short distance away, behind the Mercat de la Boqueria, someone had left another bicycle—this one green—right in front of the emergency exit of the Escola Massana. Two streets further on, four white bicycles were blocking the road at a corner.

The perception of these strolls through the city can quickly be transformed into data. According to municipal sources, since the beginning of the year, surveillance units managed by the Guardia Urbana (Urban Guard) and the municipal company BSM have issued a total of 3,733 tickets for these types of bicycles for being improperly parked. Almost fourteen every day. Considering that there are a total of 3,478 vehicles of this type in the city, we could say that by the end of September, all bicycles had been fined at least once. The same sources emphasize that, so far, 86% of the fines have been collected, a figure they consider "very high" given that there are still fines pending payment.

In some cases, however, the fine is not enough. Sometimes the bicycle is so badly parked that it makes it impossible or excessively difficult for pedestrians to cross, and even forces them to step off the sidewalk. The municipal tow truck, more accustomed to towing cars and motorcycles than bicycles, also intervenes. Between January and August alone, this service has already had to remove 884 bicycles from public streets. bike sharingMore than three every day. And another 330 of those had to be towed away throughout 2024, although it's true that this year the city has more shared bikes than last year.

An extra requirement

At the end of 2024, the City Council awarded the new licenses for shared bicycles. Since then, seven companies—Smart Cycles, RideMovi, Cooltra, Boltest TXFY, Lime Technology, Bird Rides Spain, and Voi Technology—have operated in the Catalan capital, each holding between 496 and 497 licenses. Taking advantage of the granting of these new permits—which are initially valid for two years and can be extended for another two—the City Council added an additional requirement for the winning companies: they must ensure that vehicles are properly parked.

Among the list of obligations for companies to obtain and maintain the license, the City Council included, for example, the obligation to ensure that bicycles are always left locked to the inverted U-shaped anchor points throughout the city. It also included a commitment to properly relocate improperly parked vehicles within a maximum of 24 hours. However, the network is full of residents reporting the presence of bicycles parked incorrectly for three or four days.

In addition, companies must provide the City Council at all times with data relating to the geolocation of each vehicle, which must have a unique and visible identification number. The different operators must also ensure that, in no case, more than 50% of their fleet is concentrated in the city center for a period exceeding two hours.

Failure to comply with these requirements, as stated in The Newspaper The City Council's director of Mobility Services, Adrià Gomila, said the move could lead to the termination of the contract with these operators. For now, municipal sources emphasize that the council is in contact with the companies to address the service issues.