The process for tendering to expand the Bicipalma scheme has been approved, the town hall planning on there being five new bike stations and 100 more bikes than at present. Transport councillor, Joan Ferrer, says that the tender will, therefore, consist of two parts which reflect these two specific requirements.
The new stations are due to be in the streets Manuel Azaña, Bartomeu Barceló i Mir (in Portixol), Arxiduc Lluís Salvador, Sant Vicenç de Pau and the Plaça Barcelona. Each one will have twenty places for bikes, with the exception of the Plaça Barcelona where there will be fifteen. Meanwhile, five will be added to the station in the Plaça de les Veles on account of there being specifically high demand there.
The total cost of all this will be just under 240,000 euros and this will include an updating of software in order to give an improved service to users.
Ferrer believes that if all proceeds according to plan, then the additions will be in place in February. He notes that the expansion of the service is within the programme Civitas-Dynamo, which runs out in November next year, and is an EU project. In order to get the maximum subsidy from it, there is an urgency in listing the latest addition to the Bicipalma system.
With the expansion there will be 650 places for bikes at the various stations for the at present 1,638 users of the service. Ferrer expects this number to increase but not dramatically. For this reason, a station at the university has, for the meantime, been ruled out. Regarding the lack of increase in users, Ferrer points out that usage depends on various factors. Two which are to be addressed are the introduction of a reduced rate for young people and a speeding-up of the process to allow tourists to make use of the service.