Best of Budapest & Hungary

The bike rental system, which is shared by five Slovak and four Hungarian municipalities, is in many ways a real breakthrough, with 85% of the costs paid for by the European Regional Development Fund.

The bicycle rental system called KOMBIbike has been inaugurated in Tata, west of Budapest.

In 2020, the National Bringapark Program saw a total of HUF 800 million worth of developments financed 50/50 by the government and local governments. This year, the investments have already exceeded HUF 1.1 billion.

The KOMBIbike project was implemented under the Interreg V-A Slovakia-Hungary Cooperation Program, led by the Pons Danubii European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation. The latter was set up by three municipalities in Slovakia (North Komárom, Ógyalla, Gúta) and four in Hungary (Komárom, Tata, Kisbér, Oroszlány). The jointly developed system allows interested parties to rent a bike from any KOMBIbike station and return it to any station. The bicycle rental system was implemented by T-Systems Hungary and the vehicles were built by the Esztergom-based company Neuzer.

Pons Danubii was responsible for the construction of the entire bicycle system, the procurement of the necessary equipment, project management, the integration of the new bike rental system into the local transport system and the organisation of training sessions for teachers and students on cycling awareness.