Bike Share

The City of Tartu will reopen its Smart Bike Share service at 05.00 on the morning of 2 June. Bikes will begin arriving at stations on 1 June.

The reopening of the Smart Bike Share service is being made possible thanks to the recent agreement concerning the rights to offer the Smart Bike Share management system reached between Bewegen Technologies Inc., which stopped offering the service, and Wegoshare Lda, which provided them with technical support and development.

The relaunching of the service will not include any changes from the point of view of users regarding the service and that everything will continue as before. The compensation offered to users in the event of a disruption to the Smart Bike Share service will also remain in place.

Bewegen Technologies, Inc. has ended its provision of the Tartu Smart Bike Share management system service. This has led to such widespread disruptions in Tartu’s Smart Bike Share service that the City of Tartu has been forced to temporarily suspend the service. The City of Tartu closed the Smart Bike Share service to all users at 17.00 on 24 May. Bikes could no longer be rented after that time, although it was possible to return rented bikes to the docks in the evening.

The Tartu City Government will compensate users for the temporary interruption to the Tartu Smart Bike Share service. All holders of a valid one-month, three-month or annual period ticket will receive the right to free travel by bus until the end of June, and the right to use the Smart Bike Share service free for one month. Purchasers of short-term tickets will receive a refund. 

Those who purchased a 30-day, 90 day or annual ticket for the Tartu Smart Bike Share service will receive the right to free travel by bus until the end of June 2023. Period ticket holders will be sent an e-mail containing a QR code, with which you can register your trip at the validator when you enter the bus. This can be done either on a mobile phone or printed out on paper.

In addition, those who have bought 30-day, 90-day or annual tickets will receive the right to use the Smart Bike Share service free for one month. Ticket holders will be sent a code by e-mail, with which they can obtain a free monthly ticket from the Smart Bike Share service website or mobile app when the period of use of their valid period ticket expires. The validity period of the code will be one year. The same compensation also applies to the joint ticket holders of the bus and Smart Bike Share service.

If the free extension of the right to travel related to the period ticket is not suitable for the user, the City Government will refund a proportional part of the cost of the period ticket according to the unused time. In this case, other benefits do not apply. The City Government will send an e-mail informing the purchasers of the period ticket (30 days, 90 days, annual) about how to apply for a refund of the ticket price.

Buyers of a one hour ticket, a day ticket, or a five-day ticket will be compensated for the cost of the ticket if the ticket expired during the interruption of Smart Bike Share service – from 17.00 on May 24, to the restart of the Smart Bike Share service. Users themselves do not have to do anything to receive compensation for the cost of the ticket.

Smart Bike Share customer service: tel 1789, [email protected]

On 8 June 2019, Tartu unveiled its bike share system, comprised of 750 bikes in 69 bike share stations across the city.

Tartu Smart Bike Share has acquired next generation electric assist bikes, which can communicate with the bike share system in real-time. This gives us information about the bike’s location and in case there is some problem, we can react quickly. Software installed in the bikes collects data for statistics about your rides, speed, distances etc.

Smart Bikes are an important part of the Smart City way of thinking. One of the most important objectives of Tartu City is to develop environmentally friendly mobility. With Bike Share, we can reduce the number of cars, encourage users to get some physical activity and maintain the “15 minutes to anywhere” phenomena in Tartu. In addition to the data-based and smartly planned bike network, using a Smart Bike is a lifestyle choice valued by citizens and visitors.

The Tartu Smart Bike Share project’s bicycles and parking areas are being financed from the urban development measure of the European Regional Development Fund and the Horizon 2020 programme for European research and innovation (support agreement no. 691883).

The bike share system consists of 750 bikes in 69 bike share stations across the city. A total of 500 bikes are electric and the remaining 250 are regular bikes.

Electric assist bikes within the bike share system are easy to use, with the electric motor starting when pedalling and the bike being free of any additional control devices. Electric assist bikes will remain in circulation until temperatures fall below freezing, and during cold periods only regular bikes will remain in circulation.

The bike share system is being supplied by the Canadian company Bewegen Technologies Inc, who won the public procurement organised last spring.

In order to rent a bike, the user must have a valid and activated joint Tartu public transport ticket or they must purchase a bike share membership. You can activate your valid Tartu bus card at Tartu Information Centre by using the validator there or you can take a bus and get your valid bus card activated by having a bus ride.

The user must create a bike share account, either on-line (ratas.tartu.ee) or via the mobile app (Tartu Smart Bike), and connect it to a credit card.

You can use a bus card or mobile app to unlock the bicycle.

When returning the bike, the bike should be left in any bike share station. Dock the bike and wait for the notification and beep. If there are no available spaces in the station, the bike can be secured with an additional lock.

When locking the bike with an additional lock, the cable of the lock must be inserted from the left through the front wheel or around the fastening connected to a sufficiently strong ground and the front wheel must be locked from the right in the locking position marked with the sticker. Watch the video about how to lock the bike correctly here.

If the user has the right to ride for free on the urban lines in Tartu, or if they have have a joint Tartu public transport ticket, then there is no need to buy a separate bike share season ticket, although a personalised bus card must be connected to the bike share system, so that it would be possible to check the existence of a ticket.

If the user has a season ticket, then each use of the bicycle for a period of 60 minutes is free, and each subsequent started hour is EUR 1.

If one does not have a valid joint Tartu public transport ticket, then they must acquire a one-hour ticket, a one day ticket, 5 day ticket, 30 day ticket, 90 day ticket or annual ticket for the bicycle sharing system, costing EUR 2, 5, 10, 12, 30 and 60, respectively.

The maximum period of use for a bike is 5 hours, after which a late fee of EUR 80 will apply.

*Official place of residence in Tartu city, Luunja or Tartu municipality.

Joint ticket gives you the right to use bus services and an access to Tartu Smart Bike Share network.

• Discounted tickets apply with personalized bus card.
• Discount groups: child (7-19 years old), youth (20-26 years old), elder (64 and more years old), severe disability.

Information boards will be installed at all bike share stations, containing precise instructions on how to use a bicycle and how much the ride costs.

If you should have any questions about using bikes, then please call the information telephone and ask for assistance: +372 1789 (Mon–Fri 8–19; Sat–Sun 10–16; from October to March Mon–Fri 8–18 ). E-mail: [email protected].

The bike share system service is being organised by Tartu Linnatransport, a division of the city, which began operating on 1 April, where technicians have also been hired, who deal with the transportation of bikes between the various bike share stations as well as the repairing of bikes.