Long-term bicycle hire services in sparsely populated areas

November 2023

Centre d’études et d’expertise sur les risques, l’environnement, la mobilité et l’aménagement (CEREMA)

1 - HOW A LONG-TERM BIKE HIRE SERVICE WORKS

The operating principle is as follows: for a subscription fee, a member obtains exclusive use of a bicycle and sometimes certain equipment and accessories (lock, pump, yellow waistcoat, etc.) for a period generally of between 1 and 12 months. The rates charged range from €30 to €50 for a one-month rental and from €35 to €100 for a 3-month rental. A deposit of between €400 and €2,000 is required from users. The bike collection and drop-off points are managed by the local authority or one of its partners (association, bike shop, retailer). This type of service can be set up in both urban and sparsely populated areas. In 2019, 162 local authorities, covering 36 million inhabitants, offered an HDV hire service, with a total fleet of 75,000 bicycles, 49% of which were powered by electric bicycles, according to ADEME ¹. The main aims of an HDV hire service are to encourage people to cycle, to give them the opportunity to try out this mode of transport for people who are not used to travelling by bike, and to encourage these users to continue cycling (by buying their own bike) after their hire period.

2 - OPERATION OF THE SERVICE

The organisation of HDV services is mainly the responsibility of the AOMs ². In the majority of cases, in sparsely populated areas, HDV rental services are managed by the local authority. However, management may be entrusted to a private operator under a public service delegation or public contract. The operation of such a mobility service is organised around the following actions :

• publicising the service on the Internet, in the local press and among local businesses to raise awareness of the service and encourage people to cycle;

• organising the service (inaugural event, service trial, cycle festival, etc.);

• managing rental requests and a waiting list to allocate bikes when demand exceeds supply;

• maintaining the bikes, either in-house or under annual contract to a local association, or even a private service provider if a dedicated budget is available.

3 - SERVICE COSTS

The main costs of an HDV service are :

• bicycle purchase costs, which are correlated with the number, type and quality of the equipment purchased: - conventional bicycle: between €200 and €350, - electrically assisted bicycle (EAB): between €1,200 and €2,500, To reduce these costs, it is possible to use a central purchasing body such as UGAP for large orders (of the order of 10 bicycles or more);

• the human resources needed to set up the service and then run it (internal and possibly external resources, depending on how the service is run): - the running costs (excluding heavy maintenance) of a long-term hire bicycle service run by a public authority are modest: around ¼ of a full-time equivalent (FTE) to manage subscriptions and the waiting list, simple maintenance operations and the organisation of promotional and communication activities, - one of the objectives of the service is to encourage people to ‘switch to buying’ after a period of hire. One of the aims of the service is to encourage people to ‘switch to buying’ after a rental period. The longer the hire period, the less time the local authority or its partner spends on providing and returning bikes. On the other hand, this has a negative effect on the rotation of bikes, with fewer users and less incentive to buy their own bike, - to reduce the cost of maintaining and servicing bikes (several thousand euros), it is in the local authority’s interest to call on local associations or to train their staff, - finally, feedback from local authorities indicates that the cost of insurance against theft and damage is very high compared to the guarantees provided;

• the premises needed to hire and maintain the bicycles. However, the attractiveness of the cycle service will be enhanced if the local authority provides cycle paths, signposting, secure parking spaces and self-service facilities for bike maintenance. The guide ‘Le coût des politiques vélos’ (‘The cost of cycling policies’) published by the Club des villes et territoires cyclables (November 2020 version, currently being updated) details the investment costs of a cycling policy and the types of funding available. Initiatives to promote, support and communicate changes in cycling practices are also essential to the implementation of a comprehensive cycling system.

• ADEME ³ indicates that the remaining cost for local authorities (in all areas) to manage these services (operation, maintenance, etc.) is on average €225 per bicycle per year (after deducting operating revenue). This amount is often higher for less densely populated areas. However, by combining the revenue from operating the service with the resale of the bikes after 2 or 3 years of use, the local authority manages to balance the operating costs of the HDV service overall.

4 - FINANCING THE SERVICE

A local authority can obtain a wide range of grants to finance a large part (between 60 and 80%) of the investment required to set up an HDV service, including :

• Positive Energy Territory for Green Growth (TEPCV) funds, which finance sustainable mobility initiatives in particular;

• Energy Saving Certificates (CEE) programmes, which promote alternatives to private car travel, in particular the AVELO programmes;

• the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) under the Linking Actions for the Development of the Rural Economy (LEADER) programme, which supports rural development projects;

• France Mobilités calls for expressions of interest, in particular the TENMOD AMI and the Avenir Montagne Mobilités AMI;

• local funding depending on the area (regional, departmental, other). The aides-territoires.beta.gouv.fr website also lists a large number of grants, classified by theme and territory.

5 - SIZING THE SERVICE

Interviews with local authorities located in the 1st or 2nd ring of conurbations reveal that a ratio of around 10 bicycles per 10,000 inhabitants is generally appropriate when the service is launched, but quickly becomes insufficient in the face of growing user demand. It is then necessary to gradually increase this ratio to find the right balance, sometimes up to 20 bikes per 10,000 inhabitants. Taking all areas together (urban and sparsely populated areas), the average fleet observed is 30 bikes/10,000 inhabitants according to a study by ADEME (2019). In addition, the composition of the bicycle fleet must be adapted to the reasons for travel, the target users of the service and the specific characteristics of the area. We therefore recommend offering a mixed fleet of conventional bicycles and EABs, or even cargo bikes (utility bicycles or bicycles for transporting children), folding bicycles or bicycles for children (depending on the needs identified), all suitably equipped (battery power and autonomy, quality of brakes, etc.), practical (basket, mudguards) and comfortable. It is also important to consider the provision of bicycles suitable for people with reduced mobility (PRM).

6 - EXAMPLE OF THE GAL SUD MAYENNE SERVICE

The GAL Sud Mayenne brings together three intercommunal bodies located in a sparsely populated area (50 inhabitants/km2) between Laval and Angers. This organisation is committed to a local energy-climate policy with a strong ambition to develop a positive energy territory. After discovering the Val d’Ille Aubigné HDV service, the LAG Sud Mayenne decided to implement a similar service to promote a sustainable and energy-efficient alternative to car travel for short-distance home-work journeys. In 2017, the Sud Mayenne LAG is rolling out an HDV service in a single community of communes. To start with, the service will have 30 VAEs with a range of 80 km, equipped with an anti-theft device and a basket. By autumn 2020, the fleet will have grown to 120 VLDs spread across the three communities. The total cost of the rolling stock investment is €168k over 3 years, or around €1,400 per bike. 66% of the investment has been funded by TEPCV grants over the 2017-2019 period. Aid from the Pays de la Loire Region has enabled additional VAEs to be purchased in 2020 and 2021. Overall, the Sud Mayenne LAG has managed to balance the operating costs of its HDV service. For 2020, in return for the €34,000 in revenue from the service, GAL Sud Mayenne spent €8,000 on maintaining the bikes and €3,000 on its events and communication activities (excluding staff costs), as well as management costs, which are difficult to estimate, but which cover the salaries of 0.2 FTEs overall. The results of the service are very positive, with demand for membership always outstripping supply. The Sud Mayenne LAG is considering ways of adapting its service. In particular, it is considering experimenting with a daily self-service bicycle service, creating a shorter-duration HDV service (1 week to 1 month) or offering a new cargo bike and folding bike service.

7 - EXAMPLE OF THE SERVICE PROVIDED BY THE PAYS DE BEAUME DROBIE COMMUNITY OF MUNICIPALITIES

The Pays de Beaume-Drobie Community of Communes (CCPBD) is a rural area in southern Ardèche with 19 communes and 8,900 inhabitants. In 2017, the community of communes applied to the TEPCV call for projects to obtain funding for the purchase of VAEs. The aim of the CCPBD is to set up an HDV service in order, on the one hand, to offer local residents an alternative to the private car and, on the other hand, to allow them to test out an EV without assuming ownership, in the hope that this will subsequently lead to future EV purchases. At the beginning of 2018, the CCPBD launched its bike hire service with twenty VAEs, including thirteen bikes for local residents and seven bikes reserved for use by technical staff.

Since the beginning of 2021, the service has included six additional VAEs. The VAEs, which cost €2,500 each (excluding VAT), were financed to the tune of 80% by TEPCV for the first twenty and 40% by the Département de l’Ardèche for the next six. At the beginning of 2023, the CCPBD acquired four new VAEs.

The operation of the HDV service is shared between two partners: the communauté de communes is responsible for the administrative management of the service (registrations, receipts, regulations, etc.), while a local bike shop, recruited under an adapted procedure, supplies the bikes and is responsible for the technical operation of the service (collection/receipt of bikes, maintenance operations, contractual revisions, etc.). The costs of communicating about the service are very low, and the costs of insurance and bike storage are borne by the bike hire company.

The community of communes partly finances the operation of the service from the revenue generated, in this case €9,140 over the period 2018-2020. The CCPBD and the cycle hire company consider this to be a win-win situation: the intermunicipality relies on the resources and expertise of the cycle hire company for technical management.

In return, the bike shop will win back customers. By the beginning of 2023, revenue will cover all expenditure, apart from the staff time allocated to the service. The service was immediately a huge success, to the extent that a beneficiary has to wait around 6 months between the validation of his application and obtaining a VAE. The half-yearly subscription is particularly popular, as it allows the user to use the VAE over a sufficiently long period of time to get to grips with different conditions of use.

After a few months of operation, the CCPBD has withdrawn the possibility of renting a VAE for the year, which was introduced when the service was launched. There were too many people taking out this type of subscription, and it was delaying access to the bikes for a growing number of users.

8 - CONCLUSION

HDV services can be an appropriate response for sparsely populated areas, complementing other mobility services integrated into a multimodal service package aimed at all local residents.

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