Bauer Media Bikes achieves CoMoUK accreditation: raising the bar for funded bike share schemes

Bauer Media Outdoor's bike share scheme, Bauer Media Bikes, has achieved CoMoUK accreditation, confirming that it meets the sector's agreed standards for safety, data sharing, and operational good practice. CoMoUK is the national organisation for shared transport - a charity promoting its social, economic and environmental benefits that provides operator accreditations in this area.

The accreditation follows an assessment against CoMoUK's public bike-share criteria, which cover areas including fleet maintenance, rebalancing, safety procedures, and the sharing of usage data to support local authority planning and national research.

Why accreditation matters

CoMoUK's accreditation framework exists to give local authorities a consistent, trusted way to assess bike share operators, without each council having to carry out its own due diligence from scratch. Reviewed annually with sector stakeholders, the framework is designed to protect public confidence in shared mobility while still leaving room for operators to innovate in how schemes are funded, branded, and delivered.

Richard Dilks, Chief Executive at CoMoUK, said: "CoMoUK Accreditation gives local authorities a reliable way to assess bike share operators without duplicating due diligence. We're glad to see more operators, including Bauer Media Bikes, meeting these standards as the sector continues to grow."

About Bauer Media Bikes

Bauer Media Bikes is a white-label bike share scheme that can be fully branded and tailored to a local authority's needs. Key features include:

• Docked or free-floating deployment, depending on what suits the local area

• Funding through sponsorship and advertising, rather than relying solely on local authority capital budgets

• A dedicated app, continuously developed and maintained

• Operational support, including maintenance and regular rebalancing of bikes

• Integration with existing street infrastructure, including bus shelters, where relevant

Bike sharing schemes have been part of Bauer Media Outdoor’s business for nearly 30 years, with the world’s first automated bike share system initially launched in France in 1998. At present, Bauer Media Outdoor manages a number of successful bikes schemes in Europe – from Oslo to Antwerp – with more than 10,000 bikes in operation.