Rekola is

bicycle sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bo ...

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. It started in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

in 2013 as a small project of Vít Ježek. As of 2020, it is operating in six Czech cities, Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia and in the Finnish city of

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

. The company is operating more than 2000 bikes, most of them are located in

. Daily ridership in 2018 was 4,700 people. The pink bikes of Rekola do not have any docks, which makes the system five times cheaper than traditional dock system. The bikes can be unlocked through an official app. User unlocks the bikes manually through the code which is given from the app. Besides classical bikes, Rekola is also providing shared ebikes,

kick scooter A kick scooter (also referred to as a push-scooter or scooter) is a human-powered street vehicle with a handlebar, deck, and wheels propelled by a rider pushing off the ground with their leg. Today the most common scooters are made of aluminum, ...

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarder ...

s and paddleboards.

History

COVID-19 pandemic

During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and after declaration of state of emergency in March 2020, the company offered unlimited number of free 30 minute rides to anybody in all cities where it operates in the Czech Republic. This offer was enabled by sponsorship from Czech companies Rohlik.cz and

Prusa Research The Prusa i3 series consists of open-source fused deposition modeling 3D printers, manufactured by Czech company Prusa Research under the trademarked name Original Prusa i3. Part of the RepRap project, Prusa i3 printers were named the most use ...

. The goal was to enable an access to transport with lower risk of virus transmission than public transport.

Locations

Czech Republic

Rekola currently operates bike sharing systems in 4 Czech cities as of 2023. It operated in 11 cities in the Czech Republic in 2019. The list also shows approximate number of bikes in each city.

Outside of the Czech Republic

References

External links

* Bicycle sharing companies 2013 establishments in the Czech Republic Community bicycle programs Cycling in the Czech Republic Bicycle sharing in the Czech Republic {{cycling-stub