Tel Aviv's iconic green bicycles en route to Jerusalem
The rental service has faced stiff competition in recent months from Chinese bicycle-sharing service Mobike.
By EYTAN HALONUpdated: OCTOBER 4, 2018 16:05Tel Ofan 370(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The Tel Aviv bicycle rental program Tel-O-Fun has announced that it will bring 500 bicycles and 50 docking stations to Jerusalem next year.The company behind the iconic green bikes, FSM Ground Services, was awarded a tender to establish the automatic bicycle-rental service in the city by Eden, a subsidiary of the Jerusalem Development Authority.The 50 docking stations will be installed across the city center and at popular tourist attractions.Fridenson Logistic Services, which owns a 45% stake in FSM, told the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Wednesday that it will take approximately one year to launch the rental service, after which FSM will operate it for 10 years, with the option of a further five-year extension. FSM is expected to earn approximately NIS 13 million from the deal.Tel-O-Fun was launched in Tel Aviv in April 2011 and today offers more than 2,000 bicycles at 206 docking stations around the city and in nearby Givatayim, Ramat Gan and Bat Yam.The rental service has faced stiff competition in recent months from the Chinese bicycle-sharing service Mobike, which launched in Tel Aviv in May. Unlike Tel-O-Fun bicycles, which require permanent parking stations, Mobike bicycles are station-less. They can be parked anywhere and are unlocked through the company’s smartphone application.The Tel Aviv Municipality has refused to cooperate with Mobike and has confiscated dozens of bicycles that were obstructing pedestrian or vehicle traffic flow.Approximately 45,000 Israelis have used the service in several Israeli cities, which is operated in Israel by car-sharing service Car2Go.In August, the Los Angeles-based transportation company Bird deployed its electric scooter sharing service in Tel Aviv, offering another transportation method to the city.Bird’s California-based rival Lime told Bloomberg News in September that it would be launching its own scooter-sharing service in Israel later this month.
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