Although funding for Mi Bici decreased in 2018, Guadalajara’s public bike share program is going great guns, state authorizes maintain.
After three and a half years of operation, the program has 39,723 registered users, who have clocked up more than 5.5 million rides.
Although 246 docking stations are located in several zones of the metropolitan area, the majority of rides have been taken in the central Guadalajara area (only 356,172 registered in Zapopan and 91,572 in Tlaquepaque). The most popular station – and one of the first installed in 2014 – is on Avenida Lopez Cotilla next to the Parque Revolucion, where the Estacion Juarez serves both lines of the city’s Tren Ligero (subway) network. The busiest time for bike rental here is around 8 a.m., at the height of the rush hour.
The State Mobility and Transport Institute had recommended a major expansion of the Mi Bici program in 2018, including the purchase of 2,000 new bikes and installation of 200 more stations in various parts of the metro area at a cost of 248 million pesos. In the end, Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval and the State Congress agreed to a budget of 100 million pesos ($US5.36 million) to cover both expanding the program and its annual operating costs.