The bike sharing scheme launched in mid June with 19 automated stations in the historic centre will expand to other areas of Rome beginning with Prati. The news of the expansion was announced on 22 September by the city council assessor for the environment, Fabio De Lillo, who said that bike sharing will be eventually extended to the whole city.

Exactly when the expansion will take place is not clear. The six-month experimental phase of the bike sharing scheme, which was sponsored at no cost to the city by the Spanish company Cerusa, will end in December. De Lillo said that service will continue without interruption while a company is sought to take over running the scheme, which will also carry out the expansion plan.

Bike sharing in Rome has currently 1,600 users and 200 bicycles. Since its inauguration on 13 June it has been used 22,000 times. Thanks to the scheme it is estimated that the equivalent of five tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions have been saved. The city council attributes the success of the scheme to its low cost for the user (first half hour free, second half hour