Free-Floating Bike Share Surges in Brussels as Customary Villo! System Declines
Brussels, Belgium – Shared electric bicycles are rapidly gaining traction in Brussels, while the city’s long-standing, station-based bike share program, Villo!, continues to lose riders. Data from 2024 reveals a 61% increase in rides on free-floating shared bikes - operated by companies like Lime, Bolt, VOI, and Dott – averaging 5,422 trips per day. These fleets consist of approximately 3,698 bicycles.
In contrast,Villo!,which requires users to pick up and return bikes to designated stations,has experienced a steady decline in popularity. Last year, the service recorded just 2,565 daily trips, a 40% drop since 2018 and a further 3.5% decrease compared to 2023.
A recent study by Brussels Mobility highlighted the underutilization of Villo! bikes, finding they are borrowed less than once per day – significantly less frequently than in comparable European cities like Paris, Antwerp, and Lyon. The reasons for this disparity are largely attributed to the system’s limitations: the bikes are heavy, require users to manually remove and charge the battery, and stations are often spaced far apart.
The convenience of free-floating systems is further emphasized by the difference in parking infrastructure. Villo! operates with 344 fixed stations, while shared bikes can be left within 2,082 designated drop zones, which are also used by shared scooters.
Scooters remain the moast popular form of shared transport in Brussels, with an average of 24,789 rides daily across a fleet of 13,528 scooters in 2024. Though, scooter usage has seen a slight dip following the implementation of stricter regulations in February 2024, which limited the number of operators to two and capped the fleet size at 8,000 scooters.
