The Espinho City Council will end on Friday the city’s shared bicycles and scooters program, arguing that the disorder caused by these vehicles has threatened mobility and safety in public space.
The matter at issue is the protocol signed in 2022 with the Byrd company, which at the time was described by the then socialist administration as a more sustainable, intelligent, comfortable and environmentally friendly internal mobility solution.
Under this protocol, the municipality of the Aveiro district and the Porto Metropolitan Area distributed 200 vehicles, which could be rented for 1 euro, later costing 25 cents per minute, and ended up many times being parked outside the spaces designated for that purpose.
In a statement, the City Council emphasizes that “the disorderly presence of bicycles and scooters has constituted an obstacle to mobility, constraining the passage of pedestrians, people with reduced mobility, wheelchair users and families with strollers, compromising safety and accessibility conditions in public space”.
Therefore, the municipality’s priority is now “to ensure a more orderly, safe and accessible use of public space,” safeguarding the interests of the population and the quality of the urban environment.
“The removal of these devices is part of the municipal strategy for valuing and managing public space, with the objective of strengthening pedestrian safety, improving pedestrian circulation and promoting a more organized, accessible and high-quality use of the urban space,” explains the municipality.
The City Council states that the agreement with Byrd ended on 26 March 2026, without the company having yet removed its bicycles and scooters from public streets.
Following a subsequent notification, the municipality then required that all vehicles be collected by next Friday, 31 July.
“If the company fails to remove them within the fixed deadline, the Espinho municipality reserves the right to carry out the coercive collection of the vehicles through its municipal services, with all costs inherent to the operation—including transport, collection, parking and other related charges—charged to the company,” concludes the municipality.
