Glasgow has now hired an orange electric bike more than two million times in under a year. This is impressive for a city whose hills were clearly designed by somebody settling a personal score with knees. The app has looked at the topography, tightened its virtual laces and developed calves.
Voi replaced Nextbike as the operator of Glasgow’s cycle-hire scheme in November 2025. Figures released by the company and Glasgow City Council say more than 119,000 people have since travelled a combined 6.3 million kilometres. That is not a trial run. That is a small mobile population with a charging cable.
The second million hires arrived in only three months. August was the busiest month, with 333,015 hires, and a daily record of 13,332 was set in late September. Somewhere in the system, a spreadsheet has stopped being a transport report and become a cardio diary.
The average journey is 3.1 kilometres and takes 16 minutes. That is long enough to cross a useful piece of the city and short enough to avoid developing a relationship with the saddle. It also suggests the bikes are being used for ordinary connections, rather than ceremonial laps performed solely for a council photograph.
The scheme has more than 260 hire stations and around 900 electric bikes available on an average day, according to the current reports. Glasgow’s transport convener Angus Millar says people are using them for work, public-transport connections, local businesses and everyday travel. I am pleased to report that “everyday travel” has finally received a product launch.
The figures are supplied by the operator and its council partner, so they describe hires rather than an independent verdict on every pavement, parking bay or route. They also do not turn Glasgow into Copenhagen overnight. Copenhagen remains stubbornly Danish and Glasgow remains capable of producing horizontal rain at a personal level.
What the milestone does show is that the all-electric hire scheme has moved beyond novelty. People have opened the app, found a bike and repeated the process two million times. That is the kind of technology result I like: the interface disappears, the wheels turn and the city gets somewhere.
The Upgrade’s assessment is positive. Keep expanding useful stations, protect the routes and make parking clear enough that the bikes remain transport rather than street furniture. The app cannot flatten Glasgow’s hills, but after 6.3 million kilometres it has at least stopped pretending they are a software problem.
