Cairo Bike: Egypt's First Public Bike Share
This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.
10 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.
How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page
✎ Updated 22 Aug 2026 Publication date recorded for 10 sources. What changed →
A Swiss foundation paid for the bikes, docks and app. It could not buy an operator that stayed: the scheme collapsed twice in its first year, and two of the fifteen planned kilometres of lane were built.
what does this mean?
The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 5 more in Cairo · 🛴 Shared mobility guide · 🚲 Mobility projects
Cairo Bike is Egypt's first public bike-share scheme: owned by Cairo Governorate, paid for by the Swiss Drosos Foundation, delivered with UN-Habitat and technically supervised by ITDP. It covers about six square kilometres of Cairo Governorate — Downtown, Abdeen, Azbakia, Attaba, Sayeda Zeinab and Garden City — with Zamalek named for a later phase. A first attempt in July 2022 collapsed within weeks; the governorate cancelled the maintenance contract that August after the contractor demanded more money, and bicycles disappeared from the docks. The scheme was inaugurated again on 20 October 2022, weeks before Egypt hosted COP27, with 250 GPS-tracked bicycles at 25 to 26 solar-powered stations and fares from one Egyptian pound an hour. It stalled a second time. The Danish-Egyptian Rascom-Donkey Republic consortium was dropped for the Egyptian operator Baddel, and the system reopened in September 2023 on a new app. In June 2024 Al-Masry Al-Youm watched the stations for seven days: the app refused bookings, the hotline printed on the signs was disconnected, bicycles were poorly maintained, and pedestrians and motorcycles stood in the lanes. Of roughly 15 kilometres of protected lane planned, about two were built, behind 50-centimetre plastic barriers. No public trip data or GBFS feed was found.
📊 Impact
Rebutting the newspaper investigation on 8 July 2024, Cairo Governorate said the app had drawn more than 37,000 users since the September 2023 relaunch, 18,000 of them since January 2024, with about 2,000 regular users and 43,821 trips completed in total across 25 stations and 250 bicycles. Every one of these is a governorate figure relayed by Al-Masry Al-Youm; there is no independent audit, and no station-level or trip data was published against which they could be checked. The same statement promised roughly 500 bicycles at 45 stations 'within several months'; this review found no source recording that second phase opening. The most recent confirmation found that the system was running is that July 2024 statement.
🎓 Lesson
A philanthropic grant can buy bicycles, docks and an app, but it cannot buy an operator that stays or a street that is safe to ride on. Cairo's scheme collapsed twice in its first year and was rebuilt around a new contractor, while the protected lane network that would have made it a transport system stopped at about two kilometres of the fifteen planned.
Sources
Show 5 more sourcesShow fewer
📅 How old is the evidence?
Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2022. 6 of 10 sources carry a publication date, from 13 August 2022 to 8 July 2024.
When the sources were published
- Youm7 (اليوم السابع) · pressYoum7 — The truth about Cairo Bike's suspension (13 August 2022)
- Middle East Eye · pressMiddle East Eye — Cairo's first bike-sharing project comes to nothing · updated 25 September 2022
- Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) · ngoITDP — With the Launch of Cairo's Bikeshare, Cycling Gains Momentum in Africa · updated 14 November 2022
- Al-Masry Al-Youm · pressAl-Masry Al-Youm — How to use Cairo Bike after its restart (22 October 2023)
- Al-Masry Al-Youm · pressAl-Masry Al-Youm — Cairo's streets write the end of Cairo Bike (investigation)
- Al-Masry Al-Youm · pressAl-Masry Al-Youm — Cairo Governorate responds: we have an expansion plan (8 July 2024)
What happened to this record
- Sources last read
- Entered the record
- Publication date recorded for 10 sources
Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 10 claims with their sources · the forensic record
Evidence Passport · public beta 10 addressable claims, 10 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.
Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 10
The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.
clm-8e6fa25bf7b15789
descriptive
owned by Cairo Governorate, paid for by the Swiss Drosos Foundation, delivered with UN-Habitat and technically supervised by ITDP
Sources carrying this claim
clm-8fb04aff7bab688e
quantitative
A first attempt in July 2022 collapsed within weeks; the governorate cancelled the maintenance contract that August after the contractor demanded more money, and bicycles disappeared from the docks
Sources carrying this claim
clm-29c67d5e48b196dc
quantitative
The scheme was inaugurated again on 20 October 2022, weeks before Egypt hosted COP27, with 250 GPS-tracked bicycles at 25 to 26 solar-powered stations and fares from one Egyptian pound an hour
Sources carrying this claim
clm-598d1286415aac7e
quantitative
The Danish-Egyptian Rascom-Donkey Republic consortium was dropped for the Egyptian operator Baddel, and the system reopened in September 2023 on a new app
Sources carrying this claim
clm-913c82e5fe3081ef
quantitative
In June 2024 Al-Masry Al-Youm watched the stations for seven days: the app refused bookings, the hotline printed on the signs was disconnected, bicycles were poorly maintained, and pedestrians and motorcycles stood in the lanes
Sources carrying this claim
clm-d2d70f25bf78aa02
quantitative
Of roughly 15 kilometres of protected lane planned, about two were built, behind 50-centimetre plastic barriers
Sources carrying this claim
clm-7aad058c2d593410
descriptive
No public trip data or GBFS feed was found
Sources carrying this claim
clm-3246866a39090285
quantitative
Rebutting the newspaper investigation on 8 July 2024, Cairo Governorate said the app had drawn more than 37,000 users since the September 2023 relaunch, 18,000 of them since January 2024, with about 2,000 regular users and 43,821 trips completed in total across 25 stations and 250 bicycles
Sources carrying this claim
clm-0fcc6f232b0ccce7
quantitative
The same statement promised roughly 500 bicycles at 45 stations 'within several months'; this review found no source recording that second phase opening. The most recent confirmation found that the system was running is that July 2024 statement
Sources carrying this claim
clm-2bdc04b98dd657cf
descriptive
A philanthropic grant can buy bicycles, docks and an app, but it cannot buy an operator that stays or a street that is safe to ride on
Sources carrying this claim
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders
This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.
Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.
sha256:c104d43aa87929ad566b04fdc0ca0562ab3404ea879d9f80849d05067935f45a
- 10
- of 10 claims mapped
- 10
- source dossiers
- 8
- publication dates recorded
- 0
- archives linked
- 0
- exact locators
- 0
- content captures hashed
Governance facts carried by the record
- Operator
- Baddel Bike Share for Cairo Governorate (Rascom-Donkey Republic consortium, 2022-2023)
- Actor types
- private
- Funding model
- grant
- Funding description
- Drosos Foundation (Zurich), with UN-Habitat; ITDP technical supervision
- Cost
- Not recorded
- Ownership
- Not recorded
- Decision rights
- Not recorded
- Exit conditions
- Not recorded
10 source dossiers
ITDP — With the Launch of Cairo's Bikeshare, Cycling Gains Momentum in Africa
- Stable source ID
src-748f24aa9ef83fc5- Publisher
- Name not classified · itdp.org
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2022-10-20
- Updated
- 2022-11-14
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Verifies Drosos funding, UN-Habitat and ITDP roles, the Rascom-Donkey Republic consortium winning a competitive tender, 250 bikes at 26 docks, six square kilometres covering Downtown, Sayeda Zeinab, Garden City and Attaba, the EGP 1 per hour fare, and the protected-lane plan. ITDP supervised the project, so it is a participant source on delivery quality.
Cairo Governorate — Cairo Bike Project
- Stable source ID
src-8ba2f4ca7466cf14- Publisher
- Name not classified · cairo.gov.eg
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Owner/authority source. Verifies Baddel Bike Share as the local operator, the partner list, 250 bikes at 25 stations, the phase-1 districts, phase 2 as still 'sought', and that bike lanes of one to two metres were installed across approximately 2 km.
Al-Masry Al-Youm — Cairo's streets write the end of Cairo Bike (investigation)
- Stable source ID
src-cc53eb143b665f87- Publisher
- Name not classified · almasryalyoum.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2024-06-24
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Independent seven-day field observation, 17-23 June 2024: app rejected all bookings, hotline on project signage disconnected, no bikes at Qasr El-Aini station, poor maintenance, lanes encroached by pedestrians and motorcycles. The strongest independent evidence on the entry.
- Claims linked
Al-Masry Al-Youm — Cairo Governorate responds: we have an expansion plan (8 July 2024)
- Stable source ID
src-65277d2d2bb45f5d- Publisher
- Name not classified · almasryalyoum.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2024-07-08
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Sole source for every usage figure in the impact paragraph: 37,000+ app users since the September 2023 relaunch, 18,000 since January 2024, 2,000 regular users, 43,821 trips. Governorate self-report relayed by the paper — not independently audited.
- Claims linked
Al-Masry Al-Youm — How to use Cairo Bike after its restart (22 October 2023)
- Stable source ID
src-2449380135b4a2a9- Publisher
- Name not classified · almasryalyoum.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2023-10-22
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Verifies the second shutdown and the 2023 restart under a new operator after the previous operator's failure, 250 bikes at 26 downtown stations, and a higher relaunch fare (EGP 5 per hour plus EGP 2). Note a date conflict: a companion governorate statement dates the local operator's takeover to April 2023, while the governorate's own user figures run from the September 2023 relaunch.
- Claims linked
Youm7 — The truth about Cairo Bike's suspension (13 August 2022)
- Stable source ID
src-40841de19d00c0cb- Publisher
- Name not classified · youm7.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2022-08-13
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Verifies that Cairo Governorate cancelled the maintenance contract in August 2022 after the contractor demanded excessive compensation, that only 5 of 26 phase-1 stations were then built, and the full published fare table including student rates and annual subscriptions.
- Claims linked
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed — Downtown Cairo bicycles: a project that died before it was born (13 September 2022)
- Stable source ID
src-fe5d661eafd95325- Publisher
- Name not classified · alaraby.co.uk
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2022-09-13
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Independent account of the failed first launch: roughly 50 bikes at four stations, bikes gone from docks, payment site unreachable, GPS not activated, thefts reported, and no dedicated bike lanes in place.
- Claims linked
Middle East Eye — Cairo's first bike-sharing project comes to nothing
- Stable source ID
src-dc75c4c0417aa20d- Publisher
- Name not classified · middleeasteye.net
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2022-09-21
- Updated
- 2022-09-25
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Independent international confirmation of the 2022 stall before COP27: station guards told to stop handing out bikes, governorate declining to comment, and an engineering academic on the absence of road redesign for cycle lanes. Its claim that a ride-hailing company objected is reported as an allegation and is not used in this entry.
- Claims linked
- Background source; no baseline claim points here
Xinhua — Cairo launches 1st bike-sharing project (21 October 2022)
- Stable source ID
src-70774dc1c815672b- Publisher
- Name not classified · english.news.cn
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2022-10-21
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Fetched. Verifies the 20 October 2022 inauguration by Prime Minister Madbouly, 250 GPS-tracked bikes at 26 solar-powered docks, station sizes, and the EGP 1 per hour / EGP 8 per day fares. Checked specifically for a project cost: it states Drosos funding but gives no monetary figure, so the widely repeated 1.5 million USD figure is not carried in this entry.
- Claims linked
Cairo Bike app (Google Play, developer Velvioo)
- Stable source ID
src-d7edaa0126f25c90- Publisher
- Name not classified · play.google.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-07-26
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-22
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
FETCH FAILED — Google Play returned only navigation chrome with the body truncated, and an AppBrain mirror returned HTTP 403. Search results indicate an Android update in June 2025 and removal of the iOS build in January 2025, but neither could be confirmed against a fetched page, so no claim from this source is used in the snippet. Listed only to document that the post-2024 status check was attempted and came up short.
- Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
- Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
- Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
- A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
- The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.
Continue exploring
Compare this project
Explore the wider context
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Cairo Bike: Egypt's First Public Bike Share” — Cairo, Egypt. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/cairo-bike-share/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
