Over the next few months, the Barcelona City Council is preparing 10,000 licenses for the use of public space for motorcycles, electric mopeds and shared-use bicycles (sharing service). This figure is double the number of licenses currently issued.
The decree regulating car-sharing vehicles is already in the process of approval. On the other hand, the awarded companies must provide vehicle geolocation data. However, they will not be able to concentrate more than 50% of their operating fleet in the city center.
The City Council has also begun preparing similar regulations for licensing rental scooters. This is due to the fact that they represent more than 700 fines so far this year for parking in public places.
Barcelona prepares 10,000 licenses
Each license granted is initially valid for 3 years, which the holder may extend for an additional year, if authorized by the Barcelona City Council. Each year the total number of licenses in force in the city will be reviewed as required by the regulations. This in order to make the necessary adjustments according to the capacity of the city’s public space.
The granting of the license shall be conditional upon payment of the municipal fee per vehicle, which for 2019 is €71.51 per year, as established by Tax Ordinance 3.10.
The objective is to make car sharing a viable and regulated mobility alternative. All this in order to avoid saturation problems in some areas of the center of Barcelona.
For the first year, the number of licenses for shared-use bicycles in economic operation has been set at 3,975 throughout the city. Of this number, only a maximum of 1,325 may be awarded to any one company. The total number of motorcycles and mopeds in the city is 6,958 and 2,319 per company.
Penalties and obligations established by the standard
In order to obtain and maintain the license, the regulation requires licensees to comply with a series of duties and obligations. One of the main ones is to guarantee bicycle parking only in the spaces provided.
These correspond to the spaces anchored to the inverted U-shaped parking lots. Another requirement is not to concentrate more than 50% of each operator’s fleet in the city center for more than two hours at a time.
The economic sanctions foreseen for non-compliance with the conditions of use of the public space and for not having the pertinent license, will be 450.76 euros.
Mobike, one of the bike-sharing operators, applauded the initiative by which Barcelona is preparing 10,000 licenses and will regulate the operation of this type of transport.
