Villo bike use fell by 10% last year

The popularity of the Villo bike-sharing service in Brussels declined for the first time in 2015, reports Bruzz.

Usage of Villo bikes fell by 10% in the capital in 2015 – that’s approximately 150,000 journeys less than the year before – yet 21 more bike stations are soon to be installed.

There are about 37,000 Villo subscribers in Brussels altogether, with approximately 4,100 Villo journeys being made per day. That totalled up to almost 1.5 million rides in 2015.

According to Bruzz, the foremost complaint about Villo’s service is that the most popular bike stations in Brussels, namely those closest to the main train stations and those in the city centre, are often empty, thus frustrating those who’ve paid for a subscription.

Many users take to Twitter on a daily basis to post photos of empty bike stations. There’s even a Twitter account dedicated to the cause called @wheresmyvillo.

The trend of users preferring to ride downhill, and not so often the other way, causes an imbalance of full and empty stations. Often, the stations located in the flatter areas are fully occupied, meaning riders have nowhere to offload their bike.

In Antwerp, five teams work from 6.00 to 22.00 to make sure bikes are evenly distributed. In Brussels, the bikes are moved at set intervals throughout the day: 5.00, 11.00 and 17.00.

Advertising giant JC Decaux, which runs the scheme, says that offering longer hours to reshuffling teams isn’t exactly easy: “If the region wants more rounds, then it should also pay more... They are limited to what is stated in the contract, no more.”