With this update, minor users who were already using the service unofficially are now covered by personal accident insurance and liability insurance.
From tomorrow, June 1st, the bicycle users over the age of 16 can now officially use GIRA, Lisbon's shared public bicycle serviceThis was previously restricted to people over the age of 18. EMEL, which manages GIRA, had said it would change the minimum age at the beginning of May.
With this change, which is reflected in the new GIRA Terms and Conditions, EMEL has extend personal accident and liability insurance to clients who were between 16 and 18 years old and already used the service informally."The renegotiation of these insurance policies has allowed EMEL to extend them, thus meeting the wishes of the GIRA user community."the company said in a statement.
Consumer protection association DECO had recently warned for the use by minors of shared bicycle and scooter services against the conditions of these services, precisely because of the issue of insurance not covering possible personal injury and property damage. Alternative services such as Bolt, which has fleets of scooters and dockless bicycles in the city, and Bird continue to limit the use of their platforms to under-18s; according to Público, these companies do not seem to be willing to change the minimum age.
Since they began circulating, GIRAs have covered more than 12 million kilometers, in more than six million trips made in the city of Lisbon. With 123 stations (representing more than 2,000 docks) and a fleet of 1,600 bikes, Lisbon's public bike-sharing network promises to continue growing; at the moment, dozens of new stations have yet to open - these stations had been promised to start operating in the first half of this year, which ends in June. In May, GIRA broke yet another record by exceeding 12,000 journeys a day.
