Moving by bike in Zaragoza
Car, taxi, commuter train, tramway, bus... too many possibilities to move within Zaragoza.
Why not to use a bike?
In spite of almost all tourist will not carry their bike with them, a public bike hiring is available in Zaragoza.
This system is used often by citizens but a 3 days forfait is available to any one who wants to move by bike in the city.
System works in this way:
- You will have to ask for a code to operate (see below how to reach it)
- There are 130 "bike stations" where you can get and leave your bike
- It is enough to go any bike station, enter your code and get your bike. You drive it and leave again in another station.
Remarks:
- There is a 5 euro fee for 72 hours forfait. You can use all bikes you want within those 72 hours, but every time you use it, maximum time is 30 minutes. After using it you can get a new bike (new services and included in your forfait) after 10 minutes. 72 hours forfait will start when you use as first time.
- In other words: suppossing you get your bike at 10:00 and you leave it at 10:20 you will be able to ask a new bike after 10:30. Providing you will use the bikes always less than 30 minutes, you will have all free services you want with the only limit that 10 minutes between every service
- Every time you use this service you have 30 minutes free. If you are going to make a longer journey (it is very, very difficult to have a more than 30 minutes bike trip in city centre and around), cost is 0,5 eur every 30 minutes extra.
- But... do not worry, just try to use the bike for less than 30 minutes. If time is near to finish, leave it in the nearest station (within 30 minutes) and wait for a new one 10 minutes later... or just walk. Be sure that you will be near your destination
- There is no need to have a return journey. This is, you can get a bike at city centre to any destination and decide to return by bus, tramway, walking. Another user will get "that" bike. They just "flow".
- Nobody will damage or steal it after you have used and left in the station. Once you left it (and checked it is correctly locked), your responsibility ends there. The bike (all of them are numbered) is set as available for a new user in that station.
Nevertheless, after several years of service there have been few, few cases of damaging public bikes.
This user has a year pass and uses a touchless card. For a three-day pass you have to dial code in the machine. As it can be seen (small but can be seen), in the screen message appears in Spanish and English.
How to buy a forfait?
Just enter in this webpage: https://www.bizizaragoza.com/servicio/registro/short/registro.php
It is the official service English version.
You have to choose for a four digits code (even if in the web they say four characters... consider it is a wrong translation... four digits, no four characters).
You may enter your phone number (with the international code) and your credit card number (VISA and Mastercard are accepted).
72 hours forfait fee costs 5 euros
A 200 euro could be charged as bike caution and given back after that period.
Where can you find those bikes?
This is current map for bike stations based on Google maps
https://www.bizizaragoza.com/localizaciones/station_map.php?TU5fTE9DQUxJWkFDSU9ORVM%3D&MQ%3D%3D
Here you have, with a spot, all bike stations, and with green lines, almost all bike lanes (some one could be created later).
You will find information about location of every station and real time bikes in each of them.
You will find real time information about:
- Stations available
- Stations without bikes (it is available to leave any bike but you will not find any one there... in that instant!)
- Stations full (it is available to get a bike there but providing you want to leave a bike there you will have to go to the nearest or waiting for 10 minutes)
- Stations out of order.
If you had gone to a station without bycicles and you enter your code, you would find information about nearby available stations
If you wanted to leave a bike in a full station and you enter your code, you would have got 10 extra minutes (this is 40 minutes to leave your bike without penalty instead of 30). You will receive information about nearby stations where you can leave your bike.
In this webpage map you can zoom in detail and look for EXACT location for each station. I would encourage you to have a look to it because sometimes you can be just near there but not finding it. Had you known the exact location, you will leave or find it faster.
How to get your bike
Simple!. Quite simple!. Go to a bike station. Look at the screen at choose the option of temporary pass. Enter your code and system will indicate the number of bike you have to get. They can be 20-30 bikes, every one with a number. They are locked and the bike given to you will be inmediately unlocked.
Take your bike, adjust the heigh for the bike seat and... start driving the bike.
When you are going to leave it, find the nearest station, put it in a free site in the station and be sure it is locked (the LED will flash and after it you can try to take it. It will be impossible).
After 10 minutes you can reach another bike.
Some pictures could explain it better
Bike stations are like this one:
FAQ
Q- Is it possible to hire for more than 72 hours?
A- Yeah, of course. After your forfait expired, just ask for another 72 hours forfait pass. Pass time start counting when you take your first use. If your pass is expired, it is enough to repeat boogking and paying 5 euro again.
But... there are no pass for periods shorter than 72 hours
Q- Where can I use the bike?
A- Have a look to this map (even if today it is out of date but... a bit longer than in the map)
http://www.zaragoza.es/contenidos/bici/PLANO_GENERAL.pdf
It is the map with all bike lanes in the city and bike stations.
If you have a bike lane (have a look... some of them arrive to the centre), you will be able to drive there peacefully.
If there is a pedestrian street (very common in the centre) you can use it too, even with parks and green areas
If there is no bike lane or similar, the general rule is: with a pedestrian pavement greater than 4m wide you are able to drive there. In other cases, you will have to drive in the road/street... but there are a lot of them with only one lane (being in the middle of it no cars will overpass you).
Q- Does it worths costing 5 euro?
A- Current transport fares are 0,74 euro suppossing you got a touchless card (with a caution and a minimum charge recommended only for a long use). So, in this case, it is enough to use it SEVEN times (even if less than 3 days) to save money
