Bicycles have become a big part of the public transport system in Barcelona. In early 2007 Barcelona city council launched a innovative bicycle borrowing scheme called “El Bicing.” which has taken the city by storm since day one. Please note that Bicing is for residents of Barcelona and not for tourists.
Tip! You can also find the bicing bike rack locations by going to the website of the Barcelona online city map www.bcn.cat/guia and choosing transport options in the right menu. Bicing stations and other transport stops like metro stations are added t0 the map.
When Bicing in Barcelona launched in 2007, there were just 750 "bicing" bikes available at 50 pick-up/drop off points in the city located primarily near Metro stations and municipal parking places.
By May 2009 there are 6000 "bicing" bikes available at 400 locations and over 100.000 registered users.
The aim of bicing is to
encourage Barcelona residents to make short trips by bicycle in order
to reduce the number of cars on the street and Bicing has proved to be a fast and financially sound way to introduce the benefits of peddle power to a the residents of Barcelona.
For residents of Barcelona the subscription cost of a bicing card is 30 euros a year (2009) prices for a 1 year period. There was talk of allowing tourists to using the bicing for a period of a week, but this met with opposition from the many private bicycle rental companies in Barcelona and the idea was shelved for the time being.
The Bicing works like this. A paid up user of the bicing system receives a personal bicing card in the mail or it can be picked up at the bicing office. This card is necessary to release a bicing bike from the advanced automatic bicing parking stands that can be seen around Barcelona.
When a bicing bike is released, the bicing user then has half-an-hour to get to their destination and drop off the bike at another bicing pick up/drop off location.
The first half hour of bicing is free and included in the annual subscription price.
However, if the first 30 minutes period is exceeded, there is an extra charge of 50 cents every 30 minutes, until you reach the maximum allowed time of 2 hours in total.
After that there is a penalty charge of 3 euros an hour for failing to drop off the bicing bike.
Despite problems with they system that can be frustrating, like bicing racks being full and problems dropping off bikes on ocassaion, the conclusion has to be that Bicing Barcelona is the way forward. Bicycling is clean, healthy and quiet. An added benefit of using the bicing system instead of your own bicycle in Barcelona is that you do not have to worry about theft. Now you have hundreds of bikes around Barcelona instead of one.
The online registration and user accounts deters theft of the bicycles, which was a common occurrance in other cities which introduced similar schemes, but with cash payment by users.
Bicing operation times are as follows:
Sunday to Thursdays: Bicing racks are open all day from except from
midnight to 05.00. During these 5 hours you can only drop-off bicing
bikes, not pick them up.
Friday and Saturday: Bicing racks are open all hours of day for both pìck-up and drop-off of bicing bikes. The bicing bike of Barcelona have 3 gears, an adjustable saddle and lights that switch on automatically at dusk.
The operator of El Bicing is a company called Clearchannel, who also manage a successful Smartbike system in other European cities like Oslo, Stockholm and Lyon. Clearchannel has initially been awarded a 10 year contract for Barcelona.
The Bicing cards are on sale on the Internet and over the counter at the Bicing office. The bicing website (in Spanish and Catalan) has information about current and future Bicing locations and a real time map showing how many bicing bikes and parking places are available at each location.
The Bicing works like this. A paid up user of the bicing system receives a personal bicing card in the mail or it can be picked up at the bicing office. This card is necessary to release a bicing bike from the advanced automatic bicing parking stands that can be seen around Barcelona. 
The bicing bike of Barcelona have 3 gears, an adjustable saddle and lights that switch on automatically at dusk. 
