Innovation: I’Velo bicycle hire

Romania

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure living (physical exercise, physical safety)

• Participation in society (political participation)

Social innovation for active and healthy ageing can also have synergistic benefits for environmental sustainability and improvements in urban transport. An increasing number of cities have developed bicycle hire schemes in an effort to improve urban mobility, reduce air pollution that contributes to tens of thousands early deaths and to increase levels of physical activity. While some cities and countries have a strong cycling culture and have highly developed infrastructure, there are many places that are developing socially innovative solutions along this track.

I’Velo is a partnership initiative that was started in 2010 as a partnership between the Green Revolution and Raiffesien Bank. The former is Romania’s first urban ecology non-governmental organisation which is committed to environmentally sustainable economic development while the latter is a large financial institution with more than 500 branches across the country. With the support of the Ministry of the Environment and several municipalities, I’Velo has established eleven bicycle rental centres in nine cities (Bucharest x 3, Buftea, Brasov, Constanta, Iasi, Sibiu, Timisoara, Oradea and Alba Iulia) with more than 1,000 bicycles for hire at modest rates.

Young people and pensioners can rent a bike for free for two hours with the appropriate documentation and registration which can be done at a centre or online. I’Velo has had more than a million registered users in five years of operation, has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,500 tons and has been an important element in a wider campaign for improvements to the urban environment to encourage bicycle use. There have been more than 50 events with more than 10,000 participants in various locations making the case for bicycle lanes, greater awareness among car users and the wider public.

University students have been targeted through the StudentObike scheme that had nearly 30,000 users in seven locations across five cities over 130 days of operation in 2015. This involves partnership working with universities and municipalities to encourage the use of bicycles as a safe and viable means of transport. Cycling is much more challenging during the five dark months of winter so the project also runs bicycle garages where people can store their own bikes safely so that they are out of the way and not cluttering up people’s homes.

The I’Velo project is also part of the annual Cities for People demonstration that is the highlight of the campaign for better bicycle provision, particularly in Bucharest. Although there has been an increase in bicycle use in the capital there are still many improvements that could be made so that the decrease in the number of cyclists killed in road accidents continues to fall from 85 in 2012 to 61 in 2014.

In relation to active ageing, I’Velo involves encouraging physical exercise across the whole of the population and particularly encourages young people, students and older people to use a bicycle. It is part of a wider campaign for better bicycle provision and so encourages the mobilisation of thousands of cyclists in political participation for a more bicycle friendly environment that would provide greater physical safety for bicyclists of all ages.

I’Velo website