The shared bikes’ talk that has been around for long seems to finally be taking a serious step towards becoming a reality. Rwandans are set to start accessing shared bikes on the streets of Kigali starting from July this year.

On Wednesday, May 26, the City of Kigali announced that it has partnered with GURARIDE, a smart and green mode transport company based in Rwanda to launch a campaign to promote non-motorised transport in the city.

Under the partnership, GURARIDE is now installing modern green mobility ridesharing docking stations across two networks: City Centre and Gisimenti- Kimironko corridors.

Tony B. Adesina, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GURARIDE during the interview. / Courtesy

Each station has provision for at least five bikes for the start, and these will be accessed by users free-of-charge for the first three months, though "fair ride costs” will be introduced subsequently, according to the city’s statement.

The New Times interviewed Tony B. Adesina, the Founder and CEO of GURARIDE and talked about more details of the partnership, including the investment put into it and how practical is bike sharing in Rwanda.

Excerpts:

Can we say that finally the use of shared bikes is taking off? And why now?

Absolutely, we can say categorically that the use of public bicycle share (PBS) is taking off in Rwanda. This initiative took some time to accomplish. The city needed to put in place various items to enable this take off successfully for the public. We needed to design the most adaptable bicycle for our city, as well as work with the city on the overall network scheme, and this takes time.

Starting from when will people be able to go to streets and find bikes there? What type of bikes are these, which streets will have them, and why did you choose these streets?

Rwandans will start using GURARIDE bikes in the month of July 2021 as we are currently setting up docking stations in the two approved Demo corridors which are Central Business District (CBD) and Kisimenti where we have bicycle lanes already established. We will be rolling out two models of bicycles "Smart Bikes and Electric Bikes.”

The initial roll out commencing in the month of July will be the Smart Bikes, while the E-bikes will be introduced between the month of August and September. The decision to start with these two corridors was made after carrying out several surveys and analysing where we have heavy foot traffic as well as existing bicycle lanes, in order to ease the general public to the gradual acceptance of bikeshare and using bicycles as a means of last mile transport.

In regard to the partnership, what part will GURARIDE play?

This partnership will see GURARIDE (the operator) deploy bicycles for the bikeshare program across the city to make movement from one point to another more convenient and affordable for the citizens of Rwanda. We will also be sensitizing the general public on the importance and benefits of cycling to them and the environment as this will reduce the daily carbon emission due to the use of fossil fuel operated vehicles.

When will this be upgraded to cover more streets?

This is a nationwide project which is kicking off with Kigali as its starting point while spreading across other districts (Musanze, Rubavu, Bugesera and Huye).

Huye being the educational hub of Rwanda will be one of our main focus as this bicycle sharing scheme program is designed to also help the youths access affordable and clean means of last mile transport. We are keen on working with all Mayors in Rwanda to bring this project to fruition in their respective districts in order to ensure that no citizen is left out of benefiting from this scheme.

How much has been invested into this so far? And how much will be invested going forward?

We are committed to the sustainability of green mobility in Rwanda and Africa as a whole. We have invested much into the project and a lot more investment will be going into the bikeshare project to ensure its success and acceptance by the general public. Our goal is to see bicycles as a means of transport, as it is used in other developed countries around the world, and we believe the "the will” of our people here in Rwanda will make the country a role model (green country) to the rest of Africa.

Will these solutions work in Rwanda where the topography is hilly?

We have taken that into cognizance and we have designed these bikes to look cool for all to enjoy riding. Mindset changes are already happening as the initial feedback from users have demonstrated the willingness of Rwandans to adopt this method of transportation. Given that Rwandans are now more receptive to sporting activities and sensitive to environmental issues, the use of these bikes is gaining so much acceptance. We have equally found out that over 65% of students polled have shown or indicated interest in this project. We intend to change mindsets, one at a time, as we all strive together for a better green Rwanda.

This project started since 2018 and one of the drawbacks was the topography which invariably led us to various concepts of both smart bikes and Electric bikes. We finally came up with the final concept that can adequately handle the challenges of the hilly areas in our newly designed e-bikes.