GIRA is going through a new not so good phase. Stations that are constantly empty or have only non-electric bikes; docks with electric bikes in red that are therefore inoperable; app that locks up from one moment to the next...
Stations that are constantly empty or have only non-electric bikes; docks with electric bikes in red that are therefore inoperable; app that locks up from one moment to the next... GIRA is going through a new bad phase. Some users are unhappy with the service and EMEL, which manages it, has not yet managed to show the capacity to respond - although it seems committed to solving the problems.
In a recent interview earlier this month, EMEL's Director of Mobility Systems Management, Bruno Maia, who is responsible for GIRA's field operation, referred to which there are about 700 bicycles in the workshop for maintenance. "We have been going through a serious crisis that started with the supply of components and raw materials that affects all industries and also our bicycle industry, and lastly we are having a labor crisis. There are too few bicycles for the high number of trips we are having."he said.
According to EMEL, the GIRA system has about 1600 bicycles and near 140 stations in operation, which translates into about 2700 docks. International best practice manuals for shared systems recommend a ratio between 2 and 2.5 docks per bike; if all 1600 GIRA bikes were in circulation, the GIRA network would be in very good health with about 1.6875 docks per bike. But with half of the vehicles in workshop and only 800-900 bicycles in circulation (according to EMEL's own open data), the ratio is quite low: between 3.00 and 3.375 docks for each bicycle. In other words, there are more docks than bicycles available to fill them. The result: empty stations.
Several users and users have complained in recent weeks about the unavailability of bicycles in the GIRA service. However, the constraints experienced have not prevented EMEL from opening new stations. At the end of September, were eight, including Sete Rios - all of them were inaugurated with pomp and circumstance, with the presence of the President of EMEL, the Councilman of Mobility and the respective Mayors. This week, another station, number 213, in front of the Santa Apolónia train station, went into operation. At the same time, the company seems committed to solving the lack of bicycles on the streets. According to the Base portal, a EMEL concluded on October 13th four public tenders for the "supply, in a phased manner, of parts/components"in the total amount of 334 thousand euros.
While policy makers open new stations, daily GIRA users experience a degraded service. Screenshots of the map of empty stations multiply on social networks, in particular in the different groups dedicated to GIRA on Facebook. Tomás, 19, a university student, has been a GIRA user for a year. "The station I use the most is Arco do Cego"he says, explaining that he started to use the bicycle with the bus. "It helped me a lot to escape the 742, which is a bus that is slow and often goes full"and directly catch the 711 in Campolide, towards Pólo Universitário da Ajuda. But, "the supply is not keeping up with demand at all. There are several times of the day when there are very few bikes on the docks, especially in the downtown area.", points out. "There is a distinct shortage of bicycles and those that exist are not taking the desired maintenance."
Thomas understands that they are "hundreds and hundreds of bikes"But he says that he has been in some dangerous situations. "Just the other day I caught a bike with the wheel warped to the right. It was really dangerous to ride it. And I've had a bike pedal come loose out of nowhere; I went to the ground for it, but fortunately I wasn't hurt." The young International Relations student also recounts less serious but still uncomfortable maintenance situations. "For example, the bike I used just now had no handlebar grip; and we constantly find saddles that are loose or that you can't lock. "
Maria, 28, self-employed, uses GIRA this March and notes that "the service has been getting worse, especially in the last few months"; complains that "in the last few days it has been extremely difficult to get bicycles" on her daily route between Lumiar and Avenida da Liberdade (and vice-versa). For Maria, another problem has to do with the application: "It's a real nightmare. I never know if and when it will work properly. It's either because it takes too long to charge, or it keeps asking for access credentials, or it assumes I'm too far from the station, or it won't unlock the bike I requested, or it won't finish the trip even after locking the bike, or it doesn't recognize the bikes that are in the available docks."
Miguel, 24, is a chemical researcher. A month ago he started using GIRA "as the main means of transportation within the city" and, despite making a "positive balance"also points out flaws in the application: "It has several bugs"it says, such as constantly locking up - needing to be restarted - and asking too often to log in."I have nothing positive to point out about the application"says Rodrigo, 18, a college student. "It freezes if it is opened, then closed for a few minutes and opened again. Often simply leaving it open for a long time will cause it to freeze." Rodrigo reports similar problems: bikes that don't show up in the app, bikes that take a while to unlock in the app, and others that "they don't really unlock".
"But my biggest problem with GIRA is really the lack of bikes. Right now, I have five stations close to home and often none of them have a bike available - or they only have classics."adds Rodrigo, who started using GIRA in July, when a station opened right next to his house, in the Carnide/Lumiar area. "Already at my university there are always plenty of them at the time I arrive (around 1 pm), but when I leave (5 pm) there are one or two. Right now, the number of bikes is insufficient for the size of the network." A different experience has Miguel. "Overall, I usually have bicycles both when leaving the house in the morning and for returning mid-afternoon"points out, noting that "there should be more incentives for users to spread bicycles around the city where they are needed, or else EMEL should more actively do this redistribution".
For Ricardo, 26, digital content manager, GIRA "it is a service that has had a poor app since day one and doesn't seem to want to improve". "It would be a flawless service with everything working well but we still have a long way to go to get there"he adds. "It is an idyllic service for those who want to ride around town without the burden of a personal bicycle; however, I see users with no sense of civility nor any sense of the rules of driving, and that worries me"Maria adds. Tiago, 42, administrative technician, says "I have never seen the service as bad as it has been recently" and asks "enforcement by EMEL of both young people who ride two on one bicycle, and the couriers who use the service"even though it is not allowed in the Terms & Conditions.
For Miguel, it lacks "densify the network in areas of high affluence such as metro stations, train stations and other intermodal terminals"and states that "there is a lack of bicycle paths in structuring axes of the city".. Micaela, 36, a teacher, has no great desire to go back to cycling after seeing her boyfriend being "hit by a car while using a GIRA, just one month after he started using the service". "It was at a crosswalk with a traffic light"he reports.
Ivo Pires, 43, physician, suggests an alternative GIRA unlocking system to the cell phone. "In 2009, I did a six-month internship in Paris, where, for my commuting, I practically only used the GIRA there - Velib"he says. "The Velib's unlocking system was much more practical and efficient than the GIRA's, and had redundancy. They would unlock with my pass on the station 'totem' or directly at the dock (each dock had a card reader). Here if you are out of battery on your cell phone...."he explains. "The GIRA application I think works poorly. It crashes somewhat frequently and loses login data even more frequently." Ivo only started using GIRA sporadically after opening a station at Praça de Campolide, but notice that "there are often no bicycles available". "This has direct implications for use as a first choice for commuting"mentions.
The number of GIRA users has been increasing year by year. On October 10th, EMEL announced an record two million trips this year, "a figure revealing the growing success of Lisbon's public bike sharing network, which is increasingly present in the city". More people use the GIRA and more trips are made by GIRA, which also has implications on the wear and tear of the bikes, maintenance efforts and availability of vehicles at the stations. With more trips, it is also necessary to increase the replacement of bicycles - but the human resources and vans available to EMEL for this task are limited.
On the other hand, EMEL is working in a new mobile application to replace the current GIRA and ePark apps, unifying the two mobility services into one. It is not known when and if this new app will see the light of day, but it is a sign that an improvement of the current platform is planned (the current GIRA app was not developed and is not managed in-house by EMEL, having been sub-contracted, which is causing some operating difficulties for the company). On the other hand, the acquisition of new bicycle parts and components may help solve the problems of unavailability of bicycles. EMEL, a municipal company owned 100% by the Lisbon City Hall, estimates a growth of the network in 20 stations per year, with an expected annual investment of 825 thousand Euros, between docks and bicycles. On the other hand, until 2025 it is the will of the municipal executive take GIRA to all parishes of the city.
It should be noted that although GIRA is under pressure, this is not the first time that the service has experienced widespread constraints. Since its launch in 2017, first as a pilot project in Parque das Nações, the city's bike-sharing system has had some not-so-good phases. One of them happened after Órbita, the company that provided the first bikes to EMEL, went bankrupt, and the municipal company was forced to rethink the entire service. From a paradigm based on concessions, in which a consortium of different private companies provided the service, EMEL invested in an internal management and operation model for the entire GIRA system. This change implied new public tenders and led to delays in both the expansion of the network and its reinforcement in terms of quality.
