Apple Maps shows you the nearest bike-sharing stations

March 12, 2018 steezy

Apple has signed a partnership with Ito World to add bike-sharing data in Apple Maps in over 175 cities across 36 countries. The feature is now live and helps you find the nearest station by typing “bike sharing” in the search bar or the name of the service.

Once again, Apple chose to integrate an existing data set instead of putting together this data in-house. Ito World has worked with dozens of companies to license and normalize bike-sharing data. This way, Apple only has to integrate one data model to support hundreds of bike-sharing services.

Apple isn’t starting from zero as the company had already integrated some bike-sharing data in a handful of cities. But this is a big improvement over existing data.

Apple Maps doesn’t tell you the number of available bikes or empty docks. I hope the company is going to add this in an upcoming update. It just gives you the address, name and contact information for the service. So this feature won’t replace more sophisticated apps for local users.

But it can be quite useful if you’re traveling to another city and you want to ride a bike. As the name of the service is different in each city, you often end up on Google looking for local bike-sharing services.

With this update, you can type “bike sharing” in any city and find the name of the service and the location of the closest station. It doesn’t tell you if a startup is operating a dock-less bike-sharing service in that city, so you’ll have to open the Mobike, Ofo or oBike app yourself.

Apple Maps supports Citi Bike in NYC, Ford GoBike in San Francisco, BIKETOWN in Portland, Santander Cycles in London, bicing in Barcelona, BIXI in Montreal, CityCycle in Brisbane, nextbike in Germany, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland, the U.K., and dozens of others. I tried looking for stations in smaller cities and it also works in European cities with hundreds of thousands of people.

Apple has been slowly adding more data to Apple Maps to stay relevant against Google Maps. The app now supports airport and mall maps, lane guidance, public transit, EV charging stations and more. Your mileage may vary, but Apple Maps could now be a good option for your local area.

Barcelona
Hamburg
London
Portland

Update: Here’s the full list of supported services. It represents 176 services in 179 cities in total.

ANZ:

Australia
Brisbane (CityCycle)
Monash University (Monash Bikeshare)

New Zealand
Auckland (nextbike Auckland)
Christchurch (nextbike Christchurch)

Europe:

Austria
10vorWien (nextbike 10vorWien)
Amstetten (nextbike Amstetten)
Innsbruck (stadtrad Innsbruck)
Klagenfurt (nextbike Klagenfurt)
Lunz am See (nextbike Lunz am See)
Mödling (nextbike Mödling)
NeusiedlerSee (nextbike Neusiedler See)
Römerland (nextbike Römerland)
Serfaus (nextbike Serfaus)
St.Pölten (nextbike St.Polten)
Thermenregion (nextbike Thermenregion)
Traisen-Gölsental (nextbike Traisen-Gölsental)
Triestingtal (nextbike Triestingtal)
Tulln (nextbike Tulln)
Unteres Traisental (nextbike Unteres Traisental)
Vienna (citybike Wien)
Wiener Neustadt (nextbike Wiener Neustadt)
Wiener Wald (nextbike Wiener Wald)

Belgium
Antwerp (A velo)
Brussels (Villo!)
Namur (Li bia velo)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo (nextbike BiH)

Croatia
Brinje (nextbike Brinje)
Gospić (nextbike Gospić)
Ivanic Grad (nextbike Ivanic Grad)
Karlovac (nextbike Karlovac)
Makarska (nextbike Makarsa)
Šibenik (nextbike Sibenik)
Zadar (nextbike Zadar)
Zagreb (nextbike Zagreb)

Cyprus
Limassol (nextbike Limassol)

Estonia
Tallinn (SIXT Tallinn)

Finland
Helsinki (alepa Fillari)

France
Amiens (Velam)
Besançon (Vélocité Besançon)
Cergy-Pontoise (VélO2)
Créteil (Cristolib)
Lille (V lille)
Lyon (Vélo’V)
Marseille (le vélo)
Mulhouse (Vélocité Mulhouse)
Nancy (vélOstan’lib)
Nantes (Bicloo)
Paris (Velib)
Rouen (Cy’clic)
Toulouse (Vélô Toulouse)

Germany
Augsburg (swa Rad Augsburg)
Bensheim (VRNnextbike Bensheim)
Berlin (nextbike Berlin)
Bochum (metropolradruhr Bochum)
Bottrop (metropolradruhr Bottrop)
Cologne (KVB rad)
Dortmund (metropolradruhr Dortmund)
Dresden (sz-bike)
Duisburg (Metropolradruhr Duisburg)
Düsseldorf (nextbike Dusseldorf)
Essen (metropolradruhr Essen)
Flensburg (nextbike Flensburg)
Frankfurt (nextbike Frankfurt)
Gelsenkirchen (metropolradruhr Gelsenkirchen)
Gütersloh (nextbike Gutersloh)
Hamburg (nextbike Hamburg)
Hamm (metropolradruhr Hamm)
Heidelberg (VRNnextbike Heidelberg)
Herne (metropolradruhr Herne)
Karlsruhe (Fächerrad)
Leipzig (nextbike Leipzig)
Ludwigshafen (VRNnextbike Ludwigshafen)
Magdeburg (nextbike Magdeburg)
Mannheim (VRNnextbike Mannheim)
Mülheim a.d.R. (metropolradruhr Muelheim)
München (nextbike Munchen)
Norderstedt (nextbike Norderstedt)
Nürnberg (NorisBike)
Oberhausen (metropolradruhr Oberhausen)
Offenburg (nextbike Offenburg)
Potsdam (nextbike Potsdam)
Quickborn (nextbike Quickborn)
Schorndorf (e-bike-stationen Schorndorf)
Schwieberdingen (e bike stationen Schwieberdingen)
Speyer (VRNnextbike Speyer)
Südheide (nextbike Südheide)
Tübingen (nextbike Tübingen)
Usedom (useDomraD)
Wachau (nextbike Wachau)
Würzburg (nextbike Wuerzburg)

Hungary
Budapest (bubi)

Ireland
Cork (Coca-Cola zero Cork)
Dublin (dublinbikes)
Galway (Coca-Cola zero Galway)
Limerick (Coca-Cola zero Limerick)

Latvia
Jūrmala (SIXT Jūrmala)
Rīga (SiXT Riga)

Lebanon
Byblos (Bike 4 All Byblos)

Lithuania
Vilnius (Cyclocity)

Luxembourg
Luxembourg (Veloh)

Malta
Malta (nextbike Malta)

Netherlands
Maastricht (nextbike Maastricht)

Norway
Lillestrøm (Bysykkel)
Oslo (Oslo City Bike)

Poland
Białystok (BiKeR)
Gliwice (GliwickiRowerMiejski)
Grodzisk Mazowiecki (Grodziski Rower Miejski)
Katowice (CityByBike)
Konstancin Jeziorna (Konstanciński Rower Miejski)
Lódź (Łódzki Rower Publiczny)
Lublin (Lubelski Rower Miejski Lublin)
Michałowice (Rower Gminny)
Opole (nextbike Opole)
Poznan (Poznański Rower Miejski)
Radom (Radomski Rower Miejski)
Warszawa (VETURILO Stacje Sponsorskie)
Stalowa Wola (STALOWA WOLA MIASTO ROWEROW)
Świdnik (Lubelski Rower Miejski Świdnik)
Szczecin (Bike_s Szczecin)
Warszawa (Veturilo)
Wrocław (Wrocławski Rower Miejski)

Russia
Kazan (Veli’k)

Slovenia
Ljubljana (Bicikelj)

Spain
Barcelona (bicing)
Seville (SEVici)
Valencia (Valenbisi)
Zaragoza (Bizi Zaragoza)

Sweden
Gothenburg (Styr & Ställ)
Lund (Lundahoj)

Switzerland
Hergiswil (nextbike Hergiswil)
Luzern (nextbike Luzern)
Stans (nextbike Stans)
Stansstad (nextbike Stansstad)
Sursee (nextbike Sursee)

Turkey
Konya (nextbike Konya)
Seferihisar (Karbis)

Ukraine
Lviv (nexbike Lviv)

United Kingdom
Bath (nextbike Bath)
Belfast (Coca-Cola Zero Belfast Bikes)
Exeter (co bikes)
Glasgow (nextbike Glasgow)
London (Santander Cycles)
Milton Keynes (Santander Cycles MK)
Stirling (nextbike Stirling)
University of Warwick (UniCycles)

North America:

Canada
Hamilton (sobi Hamilton)
Montreal (BIXI)

USA
Atlanta (Relay)
Boise (Boise Greenbike)
Boston (Hubway)
Buffalo (REDDY bikeshare)
Charlottesville (UBike)
Chicago (Divvy)
Columbus, OH (CoGo Bike Share)
Hoboken (Hudson Bike Share)
Kent State University (Flashfleet)
Ketchum / Sun Valley (MR BIKE SHARE)
Long Beach (sobi LONG BEACH)
New York (citi bike)
Phoenix (GR:D)
Pittsburgh (Healthy Ride)
Portland (BIKETOWN)
San Francisco Bay Area (Ford GoBike)
San Ramon (BRiteBikes)
St. Paul (nICE RIDE Minnesota)
Topeka (Topeka Metro Bikes)
Washington (Capital Bikeshare)
West Palm Beach (SKYBIKE)
Tampa, St Petersburg and USF (coast)
Orlando (Juice)
Santa Monica (Breeze Bike Share)