Bicycles have become part of the public transport system in Barcelona. In March 2007 Barcelona city council launched a innovative bicycle borrowing scheme called “El Bicing.” which has taken the city by storm since day one.
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 May 2007, there were 750 "bicing" bikes available at 50 pick-up/drop off points in the city located primarily near Metro stations and municipal parking places.
By the 1st July 2007 there were 1500 "bicing" bikes available and at the end of 2007 the number was 3000 bicing bicycles at 194 locations!
The number of registered users was a staggering 100.000 with more than 4 million bicing bicycle trips taken since the launch.
A very impressive fast and financially sound way to introduce the benefits of peddle power to a the residents of Barcelona. 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.
In the beginning the bicing scheme was not intended for tourists, but since July 2007, a weekly subscription option was introduced, which gave tourists in Barcelona the option to use the Bicing system.
The subscription cost of a bicing card is 24 euros a year and 1 euro a week for tourists.
A paid up user of the bicing system gets a personal card in the mail or 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 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 30 cents every 30 minutes, until you reach the maximum allowed time of 2 hours in total.
After that there is a penalty fo 3 euros an hour for failing to drop off the bicing bike.
All in all this is a brilliant idea. Bicycling is clean, healthy and quiet. The 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.
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.
A paid up user of the bicing system gets a personal card in the mail or 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. 
