"Nowadays, it's more or less standard practice for cities to have a bike-sharing system," says Age Poom, associate professor of urban environment at the University of Tartu (UT). However, the smaller the city, the more difficult it is to keep such a system running. According to Karl Saidla, a UT sustainable mobility researcher, there are more than 2,000 bike-sharing systems worldwide.

Saidla, Poom, UT Associate Professor of Human Geography Siiri Silm and their colleagues conducted a comparative study of the bike-sharing systems in Helsinki and Tartu. Between January 2022 and April 2023, they carried out nearly 40 interviews with sustainable transport experts in both cities. They also analyzed usage data for each city's rental bikes. "In both cities, the systems were consciously designed to function as part of the public transport network," Saidla points out.

For locals or tourists?

According to Karl Saidla, who resides in Ottawa, bike rental systems can also be found in otherwise car-centric cities in North America and Asia. However, in those regions, they are often run as commercial enterprises. "In Tartu, the bike-share system is conceived as part of the public transportation network and is subsidized by the city," the researcher notes in comparison.

When comparing Tartu and Helsinki, both cities developed their systems with the public in mind. Usage data also shows that people in both cities actively make use of bike rentals. "But in terms of size and structure, the two systems are completely different. In fact, all of Tartu is smaller than downtown Helsinki," Saidla points out.

In Helsinki, he explains, planners deliberately took advantage of the city center's density and abundance of destinations. As a result, the bike-share system initially operated only in the downtown area and during the summer months, targeting tourists in part. "The area was large and busy enough that launching a bike-share system was worthwhile," Saidla recalls.

Following this initial success, planners decided to expand the Helsinki system beyond the city center, albeit with a sparser network of stations. However, outside the downtown core, they more closely integrated the bike-share stations with the public transportation network, making it easier for people to switch from a bike to a train or bus.

In contrast, the team behind Tartu's system decided from the outset that it should cover the entire city. Saidla says this was a deliberate choice, since Tartu's city limits are only about seven kilometers from the center in any direction. "Typically, a bike-share system wouldn't be created for such a small area. In Tartu, it wasn't feasible to link the bikes with public transport, because people either ride the whole way by bike or combine biking or bus travel with walking," Saidla explains. That's why Tartu's stations were placed in a dense network throughout the city, wherever there are residential areas and services.

According to the researcher, Tartu made a bold move by launching with a large network right away, but the strong start paid off. Age Poom agrees that the system got a boost from a robust marketing campaign and the decision to offer free rides for all users during the first month. "One important difference between Tartu's system and others is the payment model. The same card can be used to pay for bike rides, public transport or both, which makes it much easier for locals than for tourists," adds Siiri Silm.

Rough start

According to the researchers, treating bike-share as part of public transportation means it must meet certain criteria. Karl Saidla points out that the system must be acceptably affordable for locals and function smoothly. "The focus must be on equity — if it's public transport, everyone should be able to use it," he adds.

In Age Poom's view, Tartu's bike-share system supported equity from the very beginning, as it was accessible to everyone aged 14 and up, unlike many similar systems elsewhere. "We see from the user base that the most active group of riders are teenagers starting at age 14. That age is crucial for developing the habit of using alternative mobility options," she notes.

Implementing such a system wasn't without its challenges in either city. In Tartu, operators not only had to learn to manage an entirely new system, but they had to do so during the initial month of free rides when bike use was extremely high. "Some small but inevitable issues arose: people misused the bikes and there were problems with the stations and the software. Operators described the first couple of months as a very difficult time," Saidla says.

According to Siiri Silm, the introduction of electric bikes played a big role in the system's early popularity: "It created a wow effect and everyone wanted to try them at first." Later, a new challenge emerged — how to find suitable replacements for broken bikes that were compatible with the existing stations.

In Helsinki, the issues were somewhat different, Saidla explains. Although the system is publicly funded, it is managed by the company City Bike Finland, which operates bike-share programs in other cities as well. This meant Helsinki's operators weren't facing a completely unique situation, unlike those in Tartu. Instead, they were under pressure to expand the system. "At the same time, they were uncertain about how well the system would work outside the city center. Would people use the bikes enough?" Saidla says.

In the downtown core, the challenge was the opposite — usage was too high. "When usage gets that intense, the service actually gets worse because bikes aren't available," Saidla explains.

Both systems, he notes, have become more flexible over time and have addressed their early mistakes. According to Poom, neither city initially had a per-minute rental option and the flat daily fee of five euros may have discouraged users. "Now, Tartu has both per-minute and hourly pricing. That's more flexible," she says.

Both systems have also had to contend with limited station capacity and competition from minute-based electric scooter rentals. "Now, both systems have a feature that allows you to return a bike next to a station, even if the station is full. That improves bike availability," Saidla explains.

Electric bikes attract users

For cities looking to implement their own bike rental systems, the authors of the new study offer several lessons based on the experiences of Tartu and Helsinki. "Both cities made the decision to treat bike-share as public transportation and have managed it accordingly — this is a mindset worth adopting, regardless of city size," says Karl Saidla. He also recommends placing bike stations relatively densely, with distances of around 500 to 600 meters between them.

For larger, more sprawling cities, Saidla suggests following Helsinki's example by thinking carefully about how to integrate bike rentals smoothly with other modes of public transit. "For smaller cities, don't be afraid to follow Tartu's bold lead," he adds. In other words, smaller cities could aim to cover as wide an area as possible with stations and focus primarily on meeting the needs of locals, rather than tourists.

"In a small city, it's essential to increase the practical chances that people can actually find bikes at the stations," says Age Poom. Currently in Tartu, people often reserve bikes during their free one-hour usage period, even while doing errands like grocery shopping, which reduces bike availability. In Helsinki, by contrast, the free usage time is capped at 30 minutes. "Of course, people find ways around that — they return the bike, immediately take it out again and continue riding. But the time limit is a disciplining measure — most people don't want to go through the hassle of checking the bike in and out repeatedly," Poom explains.

According to Saidla, offering electric bikes would boost usage in any city: "Where electric bikes are available, they're used three to four times more often than regular bikes."

Siiri Silm adds that, based on Tartu's experience, year-round availability, adaptability to user needs over time and support for social equity all contribute to a successful system. "We have bike stations in different parts of the city, which allows people in different neighborhoods, with different social backgrounds or habits, to use the system," she notes.

The research team's findings are published in the journal Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives.

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