On Thursday, June 24, at 11 a.m. in Piazza Stesicoro, the city of Catania’s Bike Sharing service was inaugurated, made possible thanks to the contribution of TMR, with its youMove system declined in the amiGO platform. Present at the event were Catania Mayor Salvo Pogliese, Mobility Councillor Giuseppe Arcidiacono and Catania Metropolitan Transport Company President Giacomo Bellavia, board members Agata Parisi and Alessio Zizzo, AMAT General Manager Marcello Marino and the‘Eng. Condorelli AMT’s commercial and mobility sharing manager.
According to Eng. Domenico Caminiti, Sales, Marketing and Special Mobility Services Area Director of AMAT Palermo “The inauguration is the starting point for further collaborations between public transport companies, it is an opportunity to Reassessing the concept of sustainable mobility in Sicilian territories, to safeguard the wonderful places we frequent, both monumental and environmental in nature which, with sustainable mobility can be enhanced and better experienced.”
A small revolution also from the point of view of local government collaboration according to Marcello Marchese Head of Special Mobility and Commercial Management AMAT Palermo “As of today, the new bike sharing service with the same operating principle as the Palermo bike sharing created by TMR is active in Catania. This system is very interesting because it is the first case of partnership in Italy between two local public service companies (AMAT Palermo and AMT Catania). Given the success of the already existing car sharing system, it is possible to create an integrated and sustainable transportation network also in the large cities of Sicily, as already demonstrated by TMR in other Sicilian realities and beyond.”
The Bike Sharing system will consist, in total, of 195 bicycle spaces, muscle-powered and assisted. There are currently 50 electric bicycles made available to subscribers distributed to begin with in five areas of Etna’s capital city: piazza Stesicoro, piazza Roma, piazza Borsellino, piazza Giovanni XXIII (central station) and piazza Leonardo Sciascia (waterfront near piazza Europa).
There is, however, already talk of service expansion. Soon 200 more bicycles between pedal-assisted and traditional bikes will be made available to citizens and tourists, and 25 more bike stations will be activated around the city.
“We want to invest a lot in sustainable mobility, we started with car sharing and today we have arrived at bike sharing thanks to our technology partners, AMAT Palermo and the City of Catania. We hope to soon expand this service to other areas and ensure coverage of the system to the entire city,” says Giacomo Bellavia, AMT Catania president .
Use of the service, by both end users and those involved in managing the platform, is extremely simple, in line with all the activities carried out by the company in the past, with one major technological innovation: the youMove system.
“We at TMR are really proud to have provided the bike sharing system for the city of Catania through amiGO platform, the AMAT car and bike sharing system.” Says Pietro Terranova, Head of Software at TMR “What’s new is that this system boasts a shiny new heart that is that of youMove, our new platform for intermodal mobility systems. An extraordinary amount of work has been done in recent months by the entire project team, i.e., TMR, AMAT and AMT, which has made possible the implementation of this system that will gradually expand to benefit Catania’s mobility. We have big plans and boundless ambition. Days like this show us that we are on the right path.”
The new shared bicycle use service is implemented will complement the car sharing service already operating successfully in Catania.
“Today we are inaugurating the bike sharing service exactly one year after the inauguration of the car sharing service, again using the AMIGO platform. For us it is a wonderful satisfaction, everything worked very well despite the somewhat delicate period because of Covid. We are pleased to be able to offer a new service today under the banner of sustainable mobility. We are leaving today with 50 pedal-assisted bicycles, all geolocated, thus offering a welcome service to both citizens and Catanese tourists visiting the city,” says the‘Eng. Condorelli AMT’s commercial and moblity sharing manager.
For more information and to find out news about the service, it is suggested to check the official website of amiGO, a company also responsible for car sharing in the city of Catania.
