Rekola

Rekola is bicycle sharing system in the Czech Republic. It started in Prague in 2013 as a small project of Vít Ježek.[1] As of 2020, it is operating in six Czech cities and in a Finnish city Vaasa. The company is operating more than 2000 bikes, most of them are located in Prague. Daily ridership in 2018 was 4,700 people.[2] The pink bikes of Rekola do not have any docks, which makes the system five times cheaper than traditional dock system.[3] The bikes can be unlocked through an official app.[4] User unlocks the bikes manually through the code which is given from the app.

Rekola
Rekola in front of Czech National Library of Technology, Prague
Overview
Area served7 (2020)
LocalePrague, Czech Republic and other 6 cities
Transit typeBicycle sharing system
Daily ridership4,700 (2019)
Annual ridership761,731 (2018)
Chief executiveVít Ježek
Operation
Began operation2013
Number of vehicles2,000+ (2019)

Besides classical bikes, Rekola is also providing shared ebikes, kick scooters, skateboards and paddleboards.

History

COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic and after declaration of state of emergency on March 2020, the company offered unlimited number of free 30 minute rides to anybody in all cities where it operates in Czechia. This offer was enabled by sponsorship from Czech companies Rohlik.cz and Prusa Research. The goal was to enable an access to transport with lower risk of virus transmission than public transport.[5]

Locations
Saddles of Rekola bikes, 2018

Czechia

Rekola currently operates bike sharing systems in 6 Czech cities as of 2020. It operated in 11 cities in the Czech Republic in 2019. The list also shows approximate number of bikes in each city.

City Launch Termination Bikes Notes
Number Year
Prague 2013 – 1200 2020[6]
Brno 2014 – ?
Olomouc 2014 – 70 ?
Pardubice 2014 2016 – Canceled due to lack of users.[7]
České Budějovice 2015[8] – 100 2019
Hradec Králové 2015 2016 30 2016 Canceled due to lack of users.[9]
Teplice 2017 2019 40 2018 Canceled because the city council stopped funding Rekola.[10]
Kladno 2019 2019 80 2019 Canceled because the public procurement was won by Nextbike.
Liberec 2018 2019 100 2019 Canceled because the public procurement was won by Nextbike.
Ostrava 2018 2019 180 2018 Canceled because the public procurement was won by Nextbike.
Frýdek-Místek 2018 – 80 ?
Mladá Boleslav 2019 – 60 2019
Písek 2019 2019 60 2019 Trial operation between June – November 2019.

Outside of Czechia
City Country Launch Termination Number of bikes Notes
Vaasa Finland 2018 – 60 [11]

References
  1. "Rekola – bike-sharing scheme". inherit.eu. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  2. "Rekola". facebook.com. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  3. "Rekola Bike Sharing: Solution for Large and Medium-Sized Cities". European Commission. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  4. "The Social Impact City Guide to Prague". thegoodglobe.com. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  5. https://prahounakole.cz/zpravicky/dusledek-pandemie-rekola-na-14-dni-zdarma/
  6. "Růžová, modrá, červená, zelená i žlutá: bikesharing v Praze 2020". Prahou na kole (in Czech). 1 May 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  7. Součková, Lada (5 August 2019). "V pardubických ulicích by se opět mohla prohánět sdílená kola". Pardubický deník (in Czech). Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  8. "Rekola – bike-sharing". Budějce.cz. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  9. "Projekt sdílených kol v Hradci vyhořel, teď zkouší štěstí BajkAzyl". iDNES.cz. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  10. Málek, Petr (17 April 2019). "Za růžová kola 1,5 milionu? Vedení Teplic to odmítlo". Teplický deník (in Czech). Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  11. "Czech bike-sharing Rekola expanded to Finland". CEE Transport. 7 October 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.


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