Hanoi extends pilot period of public bicycle service

The Hanoi People's Committee has just extended the pilot period of urban bicycle service until the end of 2025.

The Office of the Hanoi People's Committee has just conveyed the opinion of Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen on piloting urban bicycle services in the area.

Public bicycles report losses after one year of pilot implementation. Illustrative photo.

Accordingly, Mr. Quyen agreed to extend the pilot period of urban bicycle service until the end of 2025 as proposed by the Hanoi Department of Transport.

The Hanoi People's Committee assigned the Hanoi Department of Transport to preside over and coordinate with relevant departments, branches and localities to continue reviewing and completing all locations for public bicycle parking lots in the area.

Mr. Quyen also noted that the immediate focus should be on historic inner-city districts, increasing connectivity with other forms of public passenger transport such as buses, BRT, and urban railways.

The City People's Committee also requested a review of legal regulations related to the implementation of urban bicycle services in the area; Establishing norms and unit prices; Procedures for implementing the next steps after the pilot period...

Hanoi will seek guidance from the Ministry of Transport as a basis for developing a project to manage and develop urban bicycles (including electric bicycles and mechanical bicycles) in the area in accordance with legal regulations...

Mr. Do Ba Quan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tri Nam Digital Transport Company, said that up to now, the unit has deployed more than 700 bicycles at 99 locations in 6 inner-city districts of Hanoi.

The service has also attracted more than 208,000 registered customers, with an average of nearly 700 new customers registering each day. Nearly 340,000 trips have been made since the pilot launch.

During the 1-year pilot implementation, revenue from the service is estimated to reach more than 3.7 billion VND. However, compared to the service operating costs, the loss is more than 2 billion VND.

Assessing the factors affecting revenue, the representative of the project implementation unit said that the rental price is very cheap, only 5,000 VND/30 minutes for traditional bicycles, 10,000 VND/30 minutes for electric bicycles.

At the end of the trip within 30 minutes, the renter will pay 6,000 VND, including 5,000 VND for car rental fee and 1,000 VND for insurance fee.

"People will only use cheap tickets. Meanwhile, we are not subsidized like buses and trains, so we have to be proactive in all operating costs. In addition, the entire system has not reached 1,000 vehicles as planned, leading to revenue not reaching the plan," Mr. Quan said.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/ha-noi-gia-han-thoi-gian-thi-diem-dich-vu-xe-dap-cong-cong-192250115101914375.htm