Electric bikes returning to Tartu's bikeshare as weather warms up
As spring returns to Estonia, micromobility devices are also increasingly making their way back to the streets — including in Tartu, where electric bikes are available again in the Tartu Smart Bike Share system.
Despite recent gloomy weather, Tartu's electric bikes were pulled out of winter storage and returned to the city's bikeshare system this week. Conventional, pedaled bikes remained in circulation all winter, but now their studded tires are being swapped back out again for regular ones as well.
As in previous years, more than 500 electric bikes are being brought out onto the streets. Each year, they cannot be brought back out of storage until the worst of the overnight frosts are over, as the batteries are sensitive to cold temperatures.
Last year, the city began testing new, Estonian-manufactured electric bikes for its bikeshare system, however, they didn't prove to be of high enough quality. Testing will continue this year as well, since while the system's original electric bikes are still in service and ready for use, the Canadian company that produced them for Tartu went bankrupt. This year, the city will continue testing with other new bikes.
"There has been particularly strong interest in electric bikes specifically; regular bikes have seen somewhat fewer users," noted Tartu Deputy Mayor Raimond Tamm. "Looking at last year's numbers, we saw approximately 810,000 uses over the entire year."
Since this past winter was a mild one for Estonia, the city also saw higher numbers of wintertime bikeshare users than during the winter before. However, it's still clear that electric bikes are Tartu residents' preferred mode of transport.
The bikeshare's electric bikes started being returned to bike stations in Central Tartu on Monday, where the bike-transporting vehicle had barely pulled away before the first electric bikes were already being checked out for use.
Returning all of the city's electric bikes into circulation takes time, but the process will gradually continue over the course of the week.
Later this year, Tartu's battery-powered electric bikes will be stored again for the winter once the first major overnight frosts signal the arrival of fall.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Aili Vahtla
