What you need to know to use (free) bike sharing in Florence

In Florence, local public transport season ticket holders can use bike sharing for free.A solution to reduce private cars in the city.

The United Nations has set the objectives that cities must achieve by 2030.One of these, objective 11, aims to reduce the per capita pollution generated by cities, promoting sustainable lifestyles.How to do it then?In Florence they thought of a solution.Last October the municipal administration made the service free bike sharing RideMovi for all holders of a local public transport season ticket.

Florence:how to use free bike sharing

Taking advantage of this opportunity is easy.Just have a subscription of any type (monthly, quarterly or annual) and use the bonus provided by Autolinee Toscane.The pass is used to activate a coupon on the application RideMovi which gives the right to 60 minutes free for pedal-assisted bikes (within 30 days of request) and traditional bikes without limits for 30 days.Once the coupon has expired, you can request another one and after the service becomes payment again.This is an experimental project that will continue until June 2025 financed with 900 thousand euros of ministerial funds received from the Tuscany Region.

So Florence is aiming to reduce the number of cars in the city

“Our goal is to increasingly reduce the number of cars in circulation by giving citizens concrete alternatives,” explains the first citizen of Florence Sara Funaro. “We want to try to provide multiple services in a single proposal to facilitate people's daily movements.The idea is to provide an efficient and sustainable response which also goes in the direction of encouraging participation in our campaign on public transport season tickets and raising awareness of the use of two wheels.With respect to this aspect, we are also investing a lot in cycle paths."

Bike sharing is not the first initiative of this type launched by the city of Florence.Last year the municipal administration launched a campaign, renewed this year, called "It brings you Florence":it is a promotion whereby new subscribers and students residing in Florence receive a free annual subscription by paying only the program registration cost of 50 euros, approximately two hundred euros less than a normal subscription.The project was a great success.In just a few months there were 11 thousand registrations and it was decided to postpone this year the deadline for submitting the request for promotion to November 20th.

The Bologna precedent

Florence is not the first city in Italy to make the bike sharing service free.In fact, from 10 June this year in Bologna all subscribers to Emilia Romagna passenger transport (Tper), the local public transport, can use RideMovi bikes without paying anything.Thanks to the subscription, users have access to a coupon for 8 trips of 30 minutes each equivalent to 20 euros.

Once the promotion is exhausted, you can request another one as long as the subscription is active, then the service becomes paid.Bologna was the first city in Italy to introduce a similar service.The mayor Matteo Lepore has long launched a series of policies aimed at encouraging sustainable mobility, first and foremost the speed limit set at 30 kilometers per hour across much of the territory.Florence and Bologna are a model city that must serve as an example to the rest of Italy.Let's hope similar episodes are repeated in the rest of the peninsula.