A new station in the self-service bike rental system BicikeLJ has opened at Šmartinska cesta, at the junction with Ameriška ulica. We have set it up at the initiative of the Alpe-Panon company and thus filled an important gap in the area.

The company is also launching a pilot »green patrol« project in cooperation with the City of Ljubljana.

Mayor Zoran Janković stressed at the opening that he was pleased to add a new station and especially expressed his satisfaction with McDonald's initiative, which, with its pilot project, takes extra care of a clean environment. »This is the first company to organise the collection of waste in public areas around its restaurants, which is extremely welcome«, said the Mayor, concluding that this way, they will further contribute to our traditional awareness-raising campaign »Man, take care of your city«.

The new green patrol pilot project in Ljubljana's inner city represents a significant upgrade of the existing McDonad's green patrols concept. This long-standing practice of employees patrolling the area around each restaurant at least once daily to pick up improperly discarded packaging has been adapted to the needs of the capital's increasingly vibrant city centre. So their team spends as much as eight hours a day – with all the necessary protective equipment – cleaning up around the restaurants on Čopova ulica and Cankarjeva ulica.

13 successful years of BicikLJ in Ljubljana

The BicikeLJ system was launched on 12 May 2011 as part of a public-private partnership with the company Europlakat d.o.o., and bike rental is very popular among Ljubljana's residents and visitors. »In over 13 years of operation, we have counted more than 310,000 users in the BicikeLJ system, who have made over 12.3 million rentals in total. As more stations are added, the number of users and rentals increases. Last year, nearly 1.6 million rentals were made and we have around 57,000 active users registered with a valid annual subscription. These high numbers are due to the good support of our maintenance and repair staff, who move and inspect the bikes on a daily basis. We repair a few dozen bikes every day and regularly put them back into the system. The mobile app also contributes to the high number of rentals, allowing users to plan their routes and use the bikes comfortably,« said Urban Korenjak, Marketing Director at Europlakat, at the opening of the new station.