Bike sharing in Poland
Last February, Mathilde, public affairs officer for Qucit, and her colleague Thomas, business developer, travelled to Poland to discover the country's shared bike systems. They will be going there again for the June 2025 edition of the famous shared micromobility trade fair: VeloCity.
Poland is a very surprising country, steeped in history, but one that has seen a considerable boom in bike sharing systems hire systems in recent years. This is thanks to a remarkably well-developed infrastructure and policies that are increasingly geared towards the ecological transition. That's why Qucit took the microphone to meet the local authorities of Krakow, Warsaw and Bydgoszcz. We invite you to discover their stories in this article: Bike-sharing in Poland.
The history of cycling in Poland
Let's start with a bit of background. The history of cycling in Poland is rich and sometimes little-known, but it plays an important role in the development of cycling in Eastern Europe.
Bicycle production in Poland dates back to the 19th century, when the country was still under the shared rule of Russia, Prussia and Austria. At the same time, cycling arrived in the country. The first cycling associations, such as Warszawskie Towarzystwo Cyklistów* (1893), were founded in major cities such as Warsaw, Krakow and Liev (now in Ukraine).
After independence in 1918, cycling was organised nationally. Two years later, the Polish Cycling Federation (Polski Związek Kolarski - PZKol) was created, and the country began to take part in international competitions. From 1945 to 1989, cycling became a propaganda tool under the Communist regime, using it as a symbol of national unity, and affiliating cyclists such as Ryszard Szurkowski and Stanisław Szozda with military or factory clubs, such as Warsaw's emblematic military club (Centralny Wojskowy Klub Legia Warszawa).
1948 saw the inauguration of the biggest cycling event in the Communist countries: The Peace Race, linking Prague to Warsaw. This race, which was supposed to embody the benefits of reconciliation between former enemies (Eastern and Western Europe), was under the direction of the Polish (Trybuna Ludu), Czechoslovak (Rudé Právo) and German Socialist Unity (SED) communist parties, who wanted to assert their global ambitions. It was also at this cycling competition that Polish riders Ryszard Szurkowski and Stanislaw Szozda regularly shone.
From 1990, after the fall of Communism, Poland gradually opened up to Western Europe, and the first Poles joined the ranks of new competitions such as the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. We'll mention Zenon Jaskuła in particular, who came 3rd in the 1993 Tour de France or Michał Kwiatkowski, road world champion in 2014 (Ponferrada).
Over the decades, these great figures have helped to inspire people and encourage cycling. In 2008, inspired by the example of other European cities such as Berlin (which launched its very first ‘Call a Bike’ bike share system in 2002), Krakow embarked on its own adventure with the ‘BikeOne’ system, which at the time had 120 bicycles. It was the very first initiative of its kind in Poland, but far from the last. In June 2012, it was the turn of the Polish capital, Warsaw, to launch what would later become one of the country's largest bike sharing hire schemes: ‘Veturilo’.
In the years that followed, other Polish cities such as Wrocław, Opole and Poznań also opened their own bike-sharing systems. These shared bike systems offer the population an economically accessible, practical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional modes of transport. They are perfectly in tune with the times, and meet the European Union's climate change targets of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared with 40% by 2024. This partly explains the growing popularity of bike sharing in the country.
Meeting with several mobility experts in Poland
Poland is a fast-growing country in terms of micromobility. To encourage this growth, the major cities are putting in place a high-quality infrastructure, as in Krakow, where there are numerous racks available within the city, as well as cycle lanes perfectly delineated by a red track with a safety edge demarcated on the ground by white dotted lines to ensure the safety of cyclists.
Although Polish local authorities receive little or no financial support from the government or the European Union to develop this type of infrastructure, they nevertheless have no shortage of initiatives and resources to offer their residents soft mobility options. In Kraków, as Małgorzata Jedynak, Head of the Active Mobility Department, explained to us, the city offers two shared bike services. “The largest is a long-term rental bike system called LajkBike, which includes 1,000 bikes – 500 regular and 500 e-bikes. The e-bikes are equipped with removable batteries that users can recharge at home,” she says.
Users of this service can rent bikes for periods ranging from 1 to 6 months and are allowed to leave the bikes anywhere within the city as they go about their daily routines. As part of the LajkBike subscription, renters also have guaranteed repair services – including support for flat tires, broken chains, or issues with gears and brakes. “This system is very popular due to its convenience for users and is planned to be expanded in 2025,” adds Małgorzata.
The City of Kraków also runs a pilot programme called Park-e-Bike, with 143 shared e-bikes. This initiative aims to make it easier for residents to switch to bicycles after leaving their cars at Park & Ride facilities. Both systems are operated by the city itself, and the Park-e-Bike system is free of charge for users.
Additionally, the city has signed cooperation agreements with Bolt and Tier, enabling commercial free-floating bike rental systems to operate in Kraków.
In Warsaw, Marta Bugaj, head of the Economic Unit at the Department of Infrastructure, helped us to trace the development of one of Poland's largest bike share hire schemes: Veturilo. The system, launched in 2012 with 1,000 mechanical bikes, is seasonal, open from March to the end of November. ‘The system has grown steadily over the years, first with 2,000 mechanical bikes, before reaching 3,500 bikes, including 330 electric bikes,’ says its director. Marta explains that: ‘The city has a flat topography, so there's no need for electric bikes, and the fixed stations don't charge. The batteries are therefore exchanged by the current operator, Nextbike, to ensure that they are recharged.’ The system is well received by the people of Warsaw. They also have e-scooter share operated by Bolt, Tier and Lime to simplify soft mobility in the capital. According to Marta, ‘the Polish capital has too many cars per inhabitant (at least 2 cars per household). The local authority's aim is to change this trend. To do this, it is comparing itself with cities like Milan and Vienna, which are the same size (around 2 million inhabitants) and have a higher modal share of cycling. In Milan, by 2024, 25 out of every 100 inhabitants will be travelling by bike on a daily basis. In Vienna, the modal share of active mobility (daily journeys on foot or by bike) is slightly higher: 42% in 2024.
To achieve this objective, the Polish capital has invested in 800 km (498 miles) of cycle paths, including 400 km (249 miles) connecting the capital to the surrounding municipalities. It also organises events dedicated to cycling, such as the ‘bike to work’ day, to promote cycling as a fun mode of transport and a multimodal alternative to the car.
However, shared bikes are not just for big cities, and smaller schemes like those in Bydgoszcz know how to stand out, as Dorota Boroń, head of the mobility department for the local authority, confirmed to us. In addition to a good cycling infrastructure, with marked lanes and racks available to cyclists, similar to those in Krakow, ‘the city currently has 365 mechanical bikes and 62 stations available to users’, as Jakub Proczek, supervisor at the municipal authority responsible for roads and public transport, told us.
The history of cycling in Poland makes us aware of the influence of the bicycle over time, from its political influence with the Peace Race, to the champion cyclists who have fascinated and continue to inspire many cycling enthusiasts, to becoming a key tool in the ecological transition for the transport of today and tomorrow. A symbol of popular independence, bike-sharing is gaining in popularity not just in Poland, but all over the world. It is today's investment in a greener future.
If this article has piqued your curiosity, we invite you to read our article on the Bike transformation in Poland: how is the country reinventing urban mobility in its cities?
Learn more about micromobility here.