There is nothing more frustrating for people signing up for the metro public bike service than arriving at the station and seeing it full of unusable electric bikes without batteries. More than should be happening to the more than 20,000 people who have registered with the AMBici, the metropolitan Bicing, since it was gradually launched eight months ago.
The root of the problem is the lack of connection to the electricity grid at the stations where the electric bikes are left. Half of the bikes were supposed to recharge automatically when parked, despite the fact that today none do. The problems with the supply of electrical equipment explain part of the delay, although the Vice President of Mobility of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), Carlos Cordón, assures that "the problem is with the electricity company, which takes time to give an answer ".
The Barcelona City Council already encountered the long procedures to be able to connect the stations to the electricity grid during the deployment of the new Bicing in 2019. At the time, those in charge of the Catalan capital chose to wait. The AMB, on the other hand, pushed forward, driven by the urgency of putting the bikes on the street before the municipal elections. As a temporary solution, the company in charge of managing the service goes by every night with the vans, collects the bikes and takes them to a warehouse to recharge them. In the morning, he leaves them parked at the stations again.
The problem in the AMBici is increased by a much higher demand for the service than expected. During the first eight months, more than one million trips were made. Each bike is used between four and five times each day and this means that they must be collected and recharged every two or three days, at all costs, since when they run out of battery they cannot be used.
This setback delays the deployment of the service, which by this point of the year should already have 2,600 bikes at 236 stations in 15 municipalities. Installation has just started in Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Sant Adrià de Besòs and l'Hospitalet de Llobregat are still missing, a great challenge due to the high level of uses expected in Catalonia's second city and because around thirty stations will be installed there, three interchanges between the metropolitan service and Barcelona's Bicing. The location of adjacent stops for the two services already works in Zona Universitària to respond to those connecting the Catalan capital via Diagonal and its use is so frequent that it has already been necessary to increase the number of anchorages. However, in the afternoon it is difficult to find an available bike. Or, rather, with batteries, since there are some, but they can't be taken.
The period between five in the afternoon and nine at night is the one that registers a higher peak of use, with more than 700 bikes every hour. Between seven and eight in the morning and two in the afternoon are the other times of greatest dynamism. Stations located next to metro stops or large railway interchanges are the ones that register the most movement. By cities, Badalona leads the uses, followed by Viladecans, Cornellà de Llobregat and Castelldefels.
