Workshop in Ibagué, Colombia Helps Cities Advance Bike-Sharing Projects

IBAGUÉ, COLOMBIA (November 10, 2017) – A workshop, hosted by the City of Ibagué and organized by the Ministry of Transport of Colombia and WRI Ross Center, convened officials from Colombian cities, the National Development Bank of Colombia, the private sector, and civil society to help cities develop successful business models for bike sharing.

Organized within the context of the NAMA for Active Transport and Demand Management (NAMA TAnDem), the workshop aimed at building capacity on the technical components of planning, designing and implementing bike-sharing systems.

Bike sharing has recently gained momentum worldwide, and local governments across Latin America are turning to bike-sharing systems to provide an affordable and active mobility solution that integrates first- and last-mile connectivity for their public transport systems. In 2016, Colombia’s Ministry of Transport launched an initiative to provide bicycles to 23 Colombian cities interested in piloting bike sharing. Now, these cities need in-depth technical assistance to make their systems a success, and the workshop was the first step toward this goal.

The discussions at the workshop were focused on sharing important findings from global case studies, as well as barriers and challenges that cities often face and how to overcome them. WRI experts Ivan de la Lanza, Luca Lo Re, Sebastian Castellanos and Natalia Lleras presented international case studies and research using a Business Model Framework developed by WRI Ross Center, through its Financing Sustainable Cities Initiative (FSCI).

During an interactive session, workshop participants explored business models for a fictitious system. This exercise familiarized participants with the Business Model Framework and how to apply it to their own projects.

“In this workshop, I have learned to consolidate the concepts around bike-sharing systems under a systemic and holistic approach, which helps me improve the vision on how we structure and define public policy guidelines for bicycles in Colombia,” said Daniel Pérez-Rodríguez, mobility and sustainable development advisor for the Ministry of Transport of Colombia. “This will allow me to identify more precisely the specific components of the value chain of a bike-sharing system in each of its stages of development.”

This workshop will be complemented by a second, scheduled for December 14 and 15 in Pereira, Colombia, where participants will learn from WRI Ross Center experts about the institutional and legal arrangements of bike-sharing systems and road safety.

Financing Sustainable Cities (FSCI) is an initiative of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities and C40 Cities, funded by the Citi Foundation, helping cities develop business models that can accelerate the implementation of sustainable urban solutions.

The Climate Technology Transfer Mechanisms project executed by WRI with support from the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Environment Facility assists Latin American Governments in overcoming barriers for implementing low carbon transport technologies.