Europe Trip 2025 - City Bikes and Infrastructure

If possible and safe, riding a bike is a great way to discover a city: faster than walking, more flexible than public transport.

Here's the summary from my recent trip:

Hong Kong, China - similar to Singapore in that footpaths are often too narrow to ride, but also has some really steep streets - a bit like Brisbane, Australia. I'm not sure if there was even a city bike scheme. Singapore is way ahead of Hong Kong in bike riding: more people riding, easy to rent a bike, dedicated bike paths. After reviewing all my photos from Hong Kong, this is the only one with a bike, can you see it?

Vienna, Austria - good path around the historical city centre. First time riding at night, and the light on the bike was not good - I did not see much, plus the path was not lighted brightly. Doable, but not recommended. WienMobil push bike costs 0.75 EUR (3.17 PLN) for 30 minutes. Vienna's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 19. The index does not always feel right. For example, from seeing how many people of all ages, and especially moms with kids in the child seat, where riding the quiet, 30 km/h streets of Tokyo, I think Tokyo should be much higher than 72, but then again, maybe that worked only for local trips, and the problem was not being able to get the bike on the train, and ride longer distances on dedicated bike paths.

Ljubljana, Slovenia - two separate schemes/companies - one for push bikes, one for e-bikes, with separate stations and apps. Near my apartment there was only an e-bike station (1.30 EUR or 5.49 PLN for 30 minutes). Apart from that, riding was good. There were lots of bike riders, plenty of bike paths. Second time riding at night, and it was a bit scary, especially the dark underpass near the central railway station. First time saw two bike riders in black clothes, without any lights on their bikes, in a dark underpass, at night. Ljubljana's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 24.

Koper, Slovenia - lovely bike paths. The best I saw on this trip:

Budapest - it was dark and raining and I did not have much time, so I did not try it. Budapest's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 57.

Zagreb, Croatia - I rented a nextbike, but it was not a good experience - too many cars, too few bike paths, and in the pedestrian areas, not enough space to ride. Walked and took trams the rest of the stay. Zagreb's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 90.

Split, Croatia - there was a nextbike scheme, but it rejected two of my nextbike accounts (different phone numbers: Polish and Australian), and I was not sure what else I could do. There were also too many people walking the narrow old town streets and too few bike paths outside to make it make sense - actually, did I see a bike path? Yes, but a very short one, in a newly redeveloped section of the waterfront:

Gdańsk, Poland - the e-bike handles badly. The pricing for casual users copies the per minute e-scooter pricing: 0.15 PLN per minute for push bikes (9 PLN per hour), 0.30 PLN per minute for e-bikes (18 PLN per hour). The good part is cheap monthly and yearly pricing and the coverage. Gdańsk's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 63.

Kraków, Poland - this city completely gave up on providing bikes for casual users. There are good programs for car owners and residents though. Car owners can get an e-bike for free at seven Park and Ride facilities. Residents can rent a push bike for a month for 33 PLN. I tried to rent an e-scooter - there are at least three different companies, but the registration process was not working and I gave up. Didn't see anyone using them. In the end, I used my legs and trams. A note about Kraków in the 2025 Copenhagenize Index report: Cities evaluated but not included in the final selection, as five other cities in their country showed higher cycling modal share.  

I did not notice any bike paths when walking, but I saw one from the train window:

Proper bike path (on the left) and crossing in Wesoła Zachód district.

This is a ridiculous number of scooters.
Also, see the bike rider behind the tram - there is no bike path here,
and no level pedestrian crossing either.

A lot of footpath taken for scooters and a missing bike parking.

Missing bike parking.

This hotel is providing its own bike share, because the city failed.

Rare bike parking.

Warsaw, Poland - cheapest rental in Poland? (0 PLN for 20 minutes for both push bikes and e-bikes, then 1 PLN for 21-60 minutes for push bikes, and 6 PLN for e-bikes, then 3 PLN and 14 PLN for 2nd hour), plenty of bike paths, usually wide enough footpaths. Saw a tandem bike to rent! I noticed the bike scheme being neglected a bit. There were too many broken bikes, and one convenient station, that I used before, disappeared. Be careful to pause the ride from the app first, and only then lock the bike, if you are stopping outside a station. I locked it by mistake when I went shopping and got a notification that I was charged 150 PLN for return in a non-authorised zone. Luckily, when I went out and hired the same bike again, it treated that as a pause and did not actually charge my card. Warsaw's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 62.

Veturilo bike station

Bike path along the Vistula river.
It looks empty, but there are 5 people on bikes in this photo.

Red crossings are for bikes.
Despite the rain and a very early hour, there is one bike rider in this photo.

Lublin, Poland - two of us failed to rent a bike. The software provided by the city is really bad. We got stuck in the registration/setup/login process at different points. Few people on bikes, no bike paths in sight.

Łódź, Poland - rent after 20 minutes is expensive (first 20 minutes are free, 4 PLN for 21-60 minutes, 6 PLN for 2nd hour, 10 PLN for 3rd hour!), no bike paths. The main street - Piotrkowska is partially closed to cars and is nice to ride. Many more woonerfs are needed. Łódź's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 68.

Piotrkowska street

Wrocław, Poland - e-bike pricing is in a scam territory: 0.59 PLN per minute (35 PLN per hour)! The push bikes are priced more reasonably for very short rentals (0 PLN for 20 minutes, 3 PLN for 21-60 minutes, 6 PLN per hour afterwards) and the bike paths were good. Wrocław is the highest ranking Polish city in the Copenhagenize Index 2025, at number 28. There are 5 Polish cities in the top 100. The one I haven't been to yet is Poznań.

Path along a canal

Bike parking near a new estate

Bikes near a kindy - a sign of a healthy city

Katowice - did not rent a bike because it was raining (lightly), and I did not feel like downloading and registering another app. In retrospect, I should have, because the distances were too big for walking. 

Katowice had the most complicated pricelist I saw, with the most ridiculous item: leaving a bike more than 10 km from a nearest station costs 5,000 PLN. Their pricelist is also an exception to how every other bike rental pricelist works: every item is the total, not the increment:

Why???

There were some bike paths, but I only saw one rider - a food delivery person.

Bike station near the main train station.

There is a bike path, but outside the relatively small historic city centre, Katowice is built for cars.

There is a motorway in a trench here.

Are these bike stands around the fountain?

Small Polish cities:

Malbork and Wieliczka - I did not see a city bike scheme.

Grodzisk Mazowiecki (population 35 thousand) - has a seasonal city bike scheme (closed in winter - many/most/all? Polish cities do that) with 100 bikes and 16 stations, and it has lots of bikes with child seats! Their website is not working, but elsewhere I found that the pricing was the same as in Warsaw.

Private bikes near the train station in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, clearly there is a need for better bike parking:

From previous trips:

Vilnius, Lithuania - there was a problem with bike stations not working - could not rent from two. Not a lot of bike paths, but when they are built, they are very good quality. Vilnius's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 50.

Singapore - the app was showing bikes that were not there, possibly someone kept them for private use in their backyard or even apartment. The bike itself was a bit too small for me. The paths, when present, were very good. Singapore's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 60.

Helsinki - one of the best cities for bike riding. See photos from my 2023 visit. Helsinki's Copenhagenize Index 2025 place: 6.

General comments: 

1. Cobblestone streets are an abomination. There was a reason most of them were asphalted. If a city wants cobblestones, make them smooth. The uneven surface is a problem for bike riders, elderly, people with prams. We struggled with it in Warsaw and Wrocław.

2. In most cities the pricing is needlessly complicated (Katowice!), expensive for rides longer than 60 minutes, and the "fees" for theft, loss or damage can stop me renting a bike: 4,613 PLN for a pushbike and 21,525 PLN for an e-bike in Wrocław!

3. Most of the schemes use customised nextbike bikes and software (website, app), and you could use the nextbike app instead of downloading the city-specific app every time you visit a new city, but you  probably shouldn't, because you may get the default nextbike pricing? (1 EUR for 15 minutes), or other things may not work. I'm really not sure. I was getting notifications about ride costs that did not match what was actually being charged hours later to my card. You also should not scan the bike's QR code from your phone's camera, because it may rent the bike in a wrong app and then you may get a notification that you rented a bike in a different city. It's a mess.

4. Australian cities are as bad as American. The Copenhagenize Index 2025 report has this note about about 5 major Australian cities, including Gold Coast: Cities pre-selected, evaluated but not retained, due to low cycling modal share or insufficient data availability.