The implementation of the public bicycle system at the pilot level, designed to promote the use of this low-carbon means of transport, is expected to begin next year in the Cuban capital.
Zunilda Parras Arias, general director of the Center for Research and Environmental Management of Transportation (Cimab) -one of the entities that created the project- informed that the feasibility study for renting the equipment has already been carried out and the bidding process of the management system is currently under way.
At first, it will not cover the whole city; there will be an urban station, located in Fontanar neighborhood, in Boyeros municipality, and other six cycle stations in areas of the Technological University of Havana and Rio Verde neighborhood, the specialist told Cuban News Agency.
As part of the strategy, she said, other measures for the development of transport will be implemented, such as the installation of surveillance cameras and the qualification of cycle paths.
The analysis of mobility in Havana showed that, by the end of the project’s execution in 2022, more than 227 thousand daily trips will be made with the rent of this non-motorized means of transport.
Claritza Cárdenas de la Vega, director of Cimab’s passengers and roads division, explained that they took experiences from countries such as Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Holland and Denmark, and served as a background for the Ha’Bici program, of the Havana Historian’s Office, which has been in operation for two years.
Its possible demand, she said, will be for average distances of three and a half kilometers and mainly for work and study purposes.
The bicycles to be used will be assembled by the company Minerva, from Villa Clara, based on a specific design prepared by Cimab, considering the characteristics of the Cuban population.
The system of public bicycles is one of the edges of Neomobility, a comprehensive project financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), led by the General Direction of Transport in Havana.
Source: CubaSI
