Almeida admits electoral miscalculation with Bicimad

"It is true" that "there is a problem with Bicimad derived from an ambitious project", but the City Council "is working hard" to solve it.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
28 March 2023 Tuesday 09:26
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Almeida admits electoral miscalculation with Bicimad

"It is true" that "there is a problem with Bicimad derived from an ambitious project", but the City Council "is working hard" to solve it. The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has verbalized in parliamentary headquarters the feeling of the majority of the users of the bicycle rental service in Madrid who, since March 7, have seen the collapse of the application and the absence of constant vehicles.

Almeida has expressed himself like this during the municipal plenary session held in the Palacio de Cibeles after observing how the left, and Vox, agreed to make a general cause of this alternative to public transport in Madrid against the councilor.

The idea of ​​the Madrid City Council was to offer Bicimad free of charge from March to July to "encourage" and make it easier "for citizens to discover its advantages first-hand." But the bet, with a marked electoral accent, has given a totally opposite result because, based on the fact that it is free, some citizens are misusing the equipment, resulting in discarded bikes piling up in the streets while the stations look empty.

The councilor himself has even justified that it is a "problem derived from an ambitious project that is decisive for the best future of Madrid", which is that any Madrid resident, wherever they live, can "finally" access Bicimad.

Almeida, however, did not want to take all the blame and regretted that 20% of users are not using it correctly "leaving the bikes where they want to leave them". For this reason, he reported that they are increasing the workforce and providing "better resources and better bicycles" to solve it.

For their part, the municipal groups of the left and Vox in the City Council have demanded more urgent measures. The deputy spokesperson for Más Madrid, Pilar Sánchez Álvarez, has called for "a new plan to move Bicimad forward" and has accused the government team of "putting electoral interests before" an initiative that "required time, planning and investment".

The socialist municipal leader, Mar Espinar, has celebrated that the Consistory recognizes "that it has not done well", but warns that a second part is missing, which is the strategy and "knowing where they want to take Bicimad".

For his part, the municipal leader of Vox, Javier Ortega Smith, has criticized the "electoral eagerness" of the municipal government when it comes to extending Bicimad to the 21 districts.