Eight municipalities in Gorenjska (Upper Carniola) are now starting the operating season of the Gorenjska.bike bike rental system. The unified Gorenjska.bike system, which operates in the municipalities of Cerklje na Gorenjskem, Jesenice, Kranj, Naklo, Radovljica, Škofja Loka, Tržič and Bled, will offer 351 bikes at 59 stations.
The Gorenjska.bike bike rental system in the Municipality of Cerklje na Gorenjskem will be open for the 2023 season from 21 April 2023 onwards.
Gorenjska.bike – a regional bike rental system – has since 2020 linked the Gorenjska municipalities that have set up a public network of automated bike rental. In Kranj and Jesenice, the local bike rental systems KRsKOLESOM and JeseNICE Bikes have been running for more than six years. In 2020 they were joined by three more Gorenjska municipalities, Radovljica, Tržič and Naklo, and together they set up the unified Gorenjska.bike rental system, the first regional rental system of its kind in Slovenia, which allows users to rent and return bikes anywhere in the region with a single username. In 2022 the network also expanded to Cerklje na Gorenjskem and Škofja Loka (eKOLOka), and in the same year it was relaunched in Bled.
In Kranj and Škofja Loka, only standard bikes are available in the winter months, with electric bikes added to the offer in April. Most municipalities opened the system in the first days of April, while the last ones plan to open it by 22 April, Earth Day.
Stations in the Gorenjska.bike system. Source: BSC Kranj
The Gorenjska.bike station network now offers 351 bikes (just over 40% of them electric) at 59 stations (Kranj 29 – soon to be 30), Škofja Loka 8, Jesenice 6, Radovljica 5, Tržič 3, Naklo 3, Cerklje na Gorenjskem 2, Bled 3).
Existing users can confirm that the rental system and using the bikes are simple. The easiest way to complete your first registration is on the website www.gorenjska.bike (opens in a new tab), where you choose the package that suits you best and the area where you will ride the most kilometres. New in the Gorenjska.bike system this year is a 3-day package; you can also choose between an annual and a monthly package, and in Škofja Loka a one-day package as well. The next step takes place at the station, where the user chooses the bike they wish to rent and follows simple instructions in Slovenian or English on the computer terminal or kiosk. Renting is even easier via the mobiln.si app. The first port of call for help with registering in the system and using the bikes is a short video available on the BSC Kranj YouTube channel or at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=Q_HOdAXQgEI; help is also available at the Kranj Sustainable Mobility Centre (in Planina), at municipal administrations and at tourist information centres.
Package prices are affordable for users: the annual package, which allows you to rent both standard and electric bikes, costs €25, the monthly package costs €10 and the 3-day package €3. Individual local systems also have their own local offers. After purchasing a package, users can start using the system, which is available every day of the week, subject to a time limit of 840 minutes, or 14 hours, per week, every week. The system’s services can be used by any private individual over 14 years of age.
What does the City Municipality of Kranj, the municipality with the most extensive station network, have to say at the start of the new season?
“This winter the KRsKOLESOM public bike rental system operated for the third year in a row. Only standard bikes were in circulation, as the batteries on electric bikes do not perform optimally at low temperatures. After the Easter holidays we returned the e-bikes to the system, and at the same time the new cycling season will open for the entire Gorenjska Bike area, which allows unified bike rental in the City Municipality of Kranj, Cerklje na Gorenjskem, Jesenice, Naklo, Radovljica, Škofja Loka, Tržič and Bled.
After the general decline in the use of all public passenger services brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, last year we already recorded a renewed and marked increase in demand, which even exceeded the levels of three or more years ago. In 2022 more than 48,000 rentals were registered, and the number of KRsKOLESOM users approached 800. In the City Municipality of Kranj (especially in the urban area) we are seeing a growing trend of bike use in winter as well, which is welcome from the point of view of sustainable mobility. Naturally, use of the system is somewhat lower in the winter months than during the rest of the year, but in the winter that has just ended we nevertheless recorded more than 2,000 rentals in December and January, more than 3,000 in February and more than 4,000 in March. The figures thus confirm the decision to keep the system open all year round – users clearly need and use this service in winter too.
A new station – already the 30th – with 20 docking points is planned for this year within the new P+R car park being built at Zlato Polje; we will also continue ‘rejuvenating’ the bike fleet in the new municipal colours. Gradual expansion of the station network is also planned for the future, but will depend mainly on the possibility of obtaining non-repayable European and national funding for this purpose,” said Miran Sirc from the Office for Economic Activities and Transport at the City Municipality of Kranj.
The number of bike rental stations in Gorenjska grows every year, as does the number of newly joined municipalities; last year the municipalities of Cerklje na Gorenjskem and Škofja Loka joined the system. As expected, the number of users is also growing, and the municipalities would like even more people to use the system, making short journeys by bike that they currently make by car.
The municipalities note that users mostly use the system within a single local system, for example in the Radovljica area, and travel less between municipalities or across the entire area covered by the Gorenjska.bike network. Systems of this kind are, of course, best suited to covering shorter distances – the so-called last mile – yet we would like to stress that this is a unified, regional rental system, with which a user can, for example, ride from Škofja Loka to Kranj for work or errands, return the bike at one of the stations there and travel home in an equally sustainable way, by train or bus.
