Hopp Belfast marks World Car Free Day as e-bike users clock up more than 12,000 journeys

Belfast’s new e-bike sharing service Hopp Belfast is marking World Car Free Day by revealing that more than 12,000 journeys have been made on its bikes in less than two months, as growing numbers of people use the service to travel around the city.

Hopp Belfast, which launched on 24 July, has recorded 184,928 minutes of travel, with the average journey lasting around 15 minutes.

The company estimates that journeys made using its e-bikes have saved approximately 4.2 tonnes of CO2 emissions since the service began operating.

The figures are being released to coincide with World Car Free Day on Tuesday 22 September, an international initiative encouraging people to consider alternatives to travelling by private car.

Hopp Belfast is backed by Aircore Ventures, a locally based sustainable investment company led by Belfast entrepreneur Brendan Boyd. Hopp operates internationally across more than 70 locations, with the Belfast service designed to provide an affordable alternative for shorter journeys and complement existing public transport.

The service has already seen particularly strong demand around some of Belfast’s major summer events. Its busiest day to date was 7 August during the Fleadh, when 394 rides were recorded, followed by 28 August, when 348 trips were made on the same date as Belfast Mela and Emerge Music Festival.

Brendan Boyd, founder of Hopp Belfast, said:

“World Car Free Day is about encouraging people to think differently about how they make shorter journeys, and that is exactly where we believe Hopp can play a role in Belfast.

“We only launched at the end of July, so to see more than 12,000 journeys already made on the bikes is really encouraging. It shows there is an appetite for convenient alternatives when people are travelling across the city.

“We’re not suggesting that an e-bike will replace every car journey or public transport, but for many shorter trips it can offer another practical option. Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for people to leave the car behind when they can.

“We’ve learned a lot from the first few months and we’re now looking at how we can grow the service, introduce more bikes across Belfast and, longer term, expand into Derry.”

Hopp operates an undocked model, allowing users to locate a bike through the Hopp app, scan its QR code and travel to their destination before parking responsibly within the service area and ending their journey through the app.

The company has also introduced campaigns encouraging responsible parking and asking users to help move bikes which have been knocked over or are causing an obstruction, with free ride minutes offered in return.

Looking ahead, Hopp Belfast plans to increase the number of bikes available across Belfast, expand the service to Derry, and explore future car and van sharing services.

Brendan added:

“Belfast has an opportunity to give people more choice in how they move around the city. Hopp is one part of that mix alongside walking, cycling and public transport.

“World Car Free Day is a good opportunity to start that conversation and encourage people to try a different way of making even one journey.”