Rental bikes in Stockholm: with e-bikes for the traffic turnaround

By 2030 Stockholm wants to be climate neutral. In order to achieve the ambitious goal, the city is now also relying on rental e-bikes. They are surprisingly cheap to rent and are meant to replace the car. Can this work?

By Lea Busch, ARD Studio Stockholm

Axel Andrén is enthusiastic: “I downloaded the app to my cell phone, set up a user account and then bought the day ticket,” says the Stockholmer. “Now I scan my barcode and unlock the bike – very easy,” he explained, pushing the bike out of the Rad station in downtown Stockholm.

Just one euro a day

“Stockholm E-Bikes” is written in white letters on the thick black frame. Andrén is using one of the electric bikes that the city has been offering for rent for a few weeks for the first time today. “It only costs eleven crowns a day – that’s unimaginable!” Eleven crowns, that’s the equivalent of around one euro basic fee. For one day, 90 free minutes included. After that you pay per hour. The annual subscription costs 16 euros.

A few bikes further on, Taylor Noor from Stockholm also unlocks one of the e-bikes. He uses them almost every day. “You no longer have to have your own bike that you then have to take care of. I have my office right up there. Here I can just grab a bike quickly, ride where I need to go and then park it here again. “

Spikes for the Scandinavian winter

There are currently around 750 such bikes in Stockholm, spread over around 70 parking stations. In the course of the next few months, there should be significantly more. Especially in the suburbs. Cargo e-bikes are also to be added. In winter, the offer is somewhat slimmed down, but the tires then get spikes so that people can drive despite ice and slippery roads.

The city of Stockholm initiated the project. Because public transport in the city – i.e. the buses, subways and trains – are often crowded and narrow. “That’s why many people decide to take the car. E-bikes are therefore a supplement to public transport,” says Daniel Helldén from the Greens. He is responsible for traffic in Stockholm.

Model Copenhagen

The concept was copied in Copenhagen. There have been e-bikes for rent there for a long time. According to the Copenhagen City Bikes website, they are part of the transport transition towards lower CO2 emissions. The rental prices are well above those in Stockholm.

Technical problems

The Stockholm e-bikes, so a real success story? Yes and no. Because in addition to the expansion and the low prices, there were great starting difficulties. Too few wheels, then they were broken and the app didn’t always work either. Complaints poured in from angry users.

At the e-bike station in the center of Stockholm, Tina and Steve from England, who have been exploring the city with the e-bikes but cannot turn them off because of an error message in the app, are cursing. “We’ve probably tried eight times,” says Steve. “It took five to ten minutes. Now I’m over my limit and have to pay another hour because I couldn’t park the bike and finish the tour.”

Goal: climate neutrality by 2030

Transport politician Helldén knows about the problems, and also that they have not all been solved to this day. Nevertheless, he emphasizes that the concept itself is correct and that the technology will still be under control. “This will be a very important piece of the puzzle for smart urban mobility.”

There are already e-scooters operated by private companies. Then there are the electric bicycles and, of course, all private bicycles. “This will lead to a significant increase in cycling in Stockholm. We are already seeing a strong increase today, but we expect it to increase by 100 percent in the next 15 years,” says Helldén.

That should also be necessary, because Stockholm has set itself an ambitious goal: the city wants to be climate-neutral by 2030.