How to Find Bike-Sharing Services in a Specific City on The Meddin Bike-sharing World Map

Updated

The Meddin Bike-sharing World Map lets you look up a city directly through its search box, then open that city's entry to see the service's operator, platform, equipment, status, and power data. It covers short-term bicycle rentals available at a network of unattended locations — so docked and hub-based systems, including pedelecs and cargo bikes — rather than every form of bike rental. If you want to know whether a city has a qualifying service and who runs it, this is the fastest route.

Step 1: Search for the city

On the map page, find the search field labeled "Search for a city" and enter the city name. The map is the primary interface, so the search narrows the world view down to the location you typed. If the city does not appear, that usually means no qualifying service is recorded there — not that the map is broken.

Step 2: Open the service entry

Select the city or its map marker to bring up the service record. The map is built around individual service entries, and each one is tied to a specific city or area.

Step 3: Read the service details

Once a service is open, the record can include:

Field What it tells you
Operator The company or organization running the service
Platform The technology or system the service uses
Equipment The type of bikes — the map's own category covers bikes including pedelecs and cargo bikes, in stations/hubs
Status Whether the service is active or otherwise
Power Power-related data for the service
Website The service's own site, when listed
BSM ID The map's internal identifier for that service

Not every field is populated for every city, so treat a blank field as "not recorded" rather than "does not exist."

Step 4: Check the 2024 report for context

The map links to a 2024 report, alongside 2021 and 2022 editions. Use these when you want city or system counts and trend context rather than a single city's record — for example, to see how a service's numbers have changed across years.

What counts as a listed service

The map's scope is deliberately narrow: short-term bicycle/e-bike rentals available at a network of unattended locations. That means station- or hub-based systems. A staffed rental shop, a one-off tour operator, or a peer-to-peer rental marketplace generally falls outside this definition, so don't expect to find it here.

If a city is missing or wrong

The site provides two submission paths:

  • "Tell us about a missing service" — for a qualifying service that isn't on the map.
  • "Tell us about any updates to this service or errors in the information shown about it" — for corrections to an existing entry.

Both forms ask for your name, email address, and comments. The site states it reads all submissions but only replies if you include an email address, so add one if you want a response. The missing-service form also asks for details such as type, operator, equipment, and website.

There is also an "Add News" option for submitting news items, with fields for type (Plans, Launch, Change, Numbers, Closure, Photos), date, story summary, source URL, and text.

Common snags

  • City not found: confirm you're searching the city name as the map records it; a missing result most likely means no qualifying service is listed.
  • Thin entry: some services have only partial data. Cross-check the linked website when one is provided.
  • Editor access: the page shows an "Editor login," which is for map editors, not general visitors — you don't need it to search or read entries.