Biciplaya: Rent a Bike Through an App!
Public bikes are being featured in many big cities around the world, such as Montreal, Mexico City, New York, London, Honolulu, Melbourne, Chicago, Guadalajara, only to name a few. However, we never imagined that this worldwide trend would arrive to our "little" beach town.... And now it has!
Local residents and tourists of Playa del Carmen will find 500 bikes displayed around town, in 44 bike stations. How to subscribe? You can download the app on your phone, follow all the steps and when you are ready, you go to the nearest bike station, you scan the the QR Code located on the bike, with your phone... et voilà! It unlocks the bike and you are ready for a 30 min ride. It is important to note that this service is offered to use more as a transportation than as leisure.
The reason is that the service allows you only 30 min per ride, however you can ride to another station and repeat the steps to get another ride. That way, the bikes get a rotation and users will most likely always find a bike at a station. For those who are not eager to use their phone to download the app, some stations will have digital "totems" with integrated ipads where you will be able to enter your user name and password. And for the "old schoolers" that are not so familiar with digital technology, NFC cards will be available to purchase at Biciplaya customer service office in Plaza Pelicanos.
The cost for an entire day is 98 pesos, 3 days for 196 pesos, 7 days for 328 pesos and a year membership for 420 pesos: If you hurry you might still be able to get the year membership at 50% discount...!
The city's decision to bring this International trend to our dear beach town makes us so happy! Our town keeps getting bigger by the minute and this initiative will surely help the environment by offering an alternative to the use of cars, for both tourists and local residents.
You can visit Biciplaya website to subscribe and to find out more about the service
Andrea was born and raised in Montreal by a Mexican mother and a French Canadian father. She studied cinema and photography in Argentina and Montreal, and has now been living in Playa del Carmen for several years. Both her Mexican and Canadian roots are an important influence on her identity and how she perceives the world through her photography and writing as the content creator for BuyPlaya Real Estate Advisors www.buyplaya.co and the blogs at https://www.buyplaya.co/playalife/
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