Bike Sharing Systems As A Tool To Increase Sustainable Coastal And Maritime Tourism. The Case Of Piraeus

Piraeus is the fourth largest municipality in Greece and a port city. Piraeus port is one of the biggest in the Mediterranean, serving thousands of passengers, who use the city as a transport corridor to reach Athens. On the other hand, the harbor gives a sense of liveliness in the city, further reinforced by the advantageous geographical position, important archaeological sites and a beautiful shoreline. New perspectives are also opening up for the city due to the development of a new cruise terminal. Among the crucial challenges faced by Piraeus city is the strong car-dependency. In order to cope with this issue and related impacts, but also to reinforce traditional economic activities related to the maritime economy, the municipality has decided to re-orient its planning efforts, visioning Piraeus as a sustainable coastal and maritime tourism destination. As part of this planning goal, the promotion of cycling has been decided, by launching a Bike Sharing System (BSS), being perceived as an excellent tourist attraction along with other advantages this can bring. The paper deals with BSS planning as a smart policy that will directly benefit the local economy. It elaborates on those factors that show how and why changes occur in a city due to a BSS, how and why it is successful or not and what are its benefits but also main challenges. It also gathers knowledge from European BSS in order to embed it in Piraeus’ BSS planning effort for improving citizens and visitors’ sustainable mobility pattern in Piraeus.