Environmentally friendly transport

There is a very convenient and affordable way to get around the city of Barcelona. It is know locally as Bicing. Bicing is not unique to Barcelona. It operates in several other cities too. Bicing is basically bike-hire,  although you do not hire the bikes. You pay a flat fee for the year to use the service.

Bikes at a pick up / drop off station

There are countless bike stations around the city, where you collect and drop off bikes (Bicing Bikes). Users only have 30 minutes per bike - so this means that if you are going somewhere far and it takes more than 30 minutes you will have to stop at a Bicing station before the 30 minutes to check your bike in and then check it out again - in order to avoid being fined. There is a fine for returning the bike after the 30 minute allocation. But the city is small so I think it is seldom that one should need more than the 30 minutes.

The rules...

The bikes can be used only during the day and until midnight. From midnight they are not able to be removed from the stations. There are several stations all over the city so getting a bike is not an issue. Maintenance teams drive around all day and night - checking bikes, repairing bikes and moving bikes from stations that have too many bikes, to stations that have too few.

Maintenance teams move bikes around and repair bikes

It honestly is an impressive operation. I wish this type of thing existed in more cities and more countries as it is environmentally friendly transport, and it's cheap to use. A mere 35 euros per year!! I guess in some places the bikes would never make it back to the stations. They would disappear and never be found again. I am sure that would be the case in Africa...