University students with a system of public bicycles in Medellin

As part of this system of public bicycles, a pilot test was performed with the participation of the media, from Estadio del Metro station to Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, for showing the routs, testing the bicycles and inviting citizens to be part of the integrated system of massive transportation.

Initially, 105 bicycles will be part of the urban system, the plane sector of Valle del Aburrá, and 45 will be integrated to be used in Arví Park.

Lina María Loaiza, coordinator of the project in Arví Park, mentioned that "this is the first system of public bicycles in Colombia. We will have 105 bicycles and 6 stations. At first, since it is a pilot test, they are going to be for Universidad Nacional and UPB students."

Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana are integrated to the cycle lanes system (ciclorutas) since, due to urban planning; they were isolated from the benefits of Metro. Mauricio Facio Lince, director of Metropolitan Area, explained: "We wanted to start with two very important origins and destinations for this project, Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Universidad Pontificia Bolibariana as final destinations. The starting point will be the following Metro stations: Estadio and Suramericana. We expect the participation of all the students and the university community in this project".

The initial investment is more than a thousand million pesos. The students will be largely benefit with this initiative that aims at being positive, not only for the transportation, but for the environment. Francis Zapata, Chief of the Planning Office in Medellin Campus explained that "Universidad Nacional and UPB are direct participants. Universidad Nacional de Colombia was chosen due to the accessibility conditions and its location, as well as the number of students and the amount of them with economic difficulties that can take advantage of this project."

Big cities in the world count of programs for bicycle transportation and Medellin is proposing the citizens this system that, despite of being juts a pilot test, can be a big alternative project for clean transportation.