Ciutadella Council is to set up a bicycle hire point so that visitors can pedal their way around the town. This will be located in the car park adjoining the old cemetery once improvement work has been carried out on the car park. The project, estimated at 150,000 euros, will form part of this year's Plan E and be financed by the State Government.
The Council is taking advantage of the reorganisation of the car park to prepare a space ready for the bicycle hire point which will have to provide easy access for the bicycles and connect with the cycle lane around the town which will be completed this year. The location was selected as it will allow tourists to drive to the hire point on the Vía Perimetral, park and hire a bicycle to visit Ciutadella, thus helping to ease traffic congestion in the town's streets.
The Mayor, Pilar Carbonero, has explained that the Council is currently considering how the hire point will be run, having rejected the 'Bicing' system operated in Barcelona which confounded sceptics and proved a resounding success, being used by 30,000 cyclists in the first two months. This involves a number of 'stations' around the city where bikes can be collected and returned by the renters.
She indicated that the hire point will be set up when the cycle lane has been completed which the Council plans to do, together with signposting the route, under this year's Plan E at a cost of 329,076 euros. The idea is that the cycle route, which was started in the Camí de Maó, will skirt around the town as far as the sports zone, including the Vía Perimetral. The Council's objective is to encourage the use of the bicycle as an alternative way of exporing and moving about Ciutadella.