PBSC Urban Solutions: Active People, Smart Cities, Healthy Planet

Micromobility, and more specifically bike sharing systems, will play a major role in providing cities with sustainable transportation. They help reduce road congestion and keeps cars off the road, improving the quality of life, and having a positive impact on citizen health, the environment, and the economy.

PBSC believes in “Changing the world, one city at a time”. A long-time leader in the micromobility space, the company develops, markets and operates the most innovative, customizable and reliable public bike-share systems on the market.

PBSC currently has four bike models — ICONIC, FIT, BOOST and E-FIT — deployed around the world and continues to expand its global footprint with over 90,000 bikes, 7,000 stations and 400 million rides so far in over 40 cities.

PBSC provides cities with bike share systems that reduce congestion and improve liveability in cities while offering users a safe, convenient and enjoyable way to move around. PBSC currently has four bike models — ICONIC, FIT, BOOST and E-FIT — deployed around the world.  All of their bike-share systems are custom made to better serve the needs of each city they are installed in. Municipalities can chose regular or electric bikes for their fleets depending of the vision they have. Today, they are on the world’s leading bike-sharing and micromobility provider with 90,000 bikes and 7000 stations in 40 cities on four continents, representing 400 million rides.

Although PBSC Urban Solutions emerged as a global brand in 2015, the concept dates back over a decade when the city of Montreal launched a dock-based bike share system for its residents called BIXI. At the time, the city operated not only BIXI but was also responsible in bringing the concept abroad to cities like New York (Citi bikes) and London (Santander Cycles). After Montreal decided to change its strategy and turn BIXI into non-profit, Luc Sabatini took over the international operations and incorporated the company as PBSC Urban Solutions. Luc invested millions in research and development to create a better and new software, as well as hardware including the company’s first electric bike, the BOOST. The team grew rapidly, and software development became an in-house operation. With an ambitious team and the best talent in the industry, PBSC brought bike sharing to new markets like numerous cities in Brazil and Mexico, Barcelona, Monaco, Dubai and over 40 other cities.

Sustainability

One of PBSC’s core values and best-selling points when for PBSC is its sustainable aspect. PBSC systems allow commuters to choose convenient, timesaving, and clean travel option instead of a more polluting one. Bike-sharing can significantly reduce congestion, fuel consumption, and the emission of harmful gases. Long term sustainability has also long been at the heart of its work at PBSC, and it builds its bikes to last. The firm’s system in Montreal, BIXI, is over a decade old, and 98% of those bikes on the road ten years ago are still there today. Its electric bikes, the E-FET and the FIT also have longer battery lives than any other comparable on the market.

Innovation is also a core value at PBSC and it makes continual improvements to its smart-stations, bicycles, and apps, as new technologies have become available and accessible. PBSC has invested millions of dollars in research and development to be able to offer the best product. It has developed recharging technology not only fast-charges its e-bikes, but also prioritizes the charging at the stations based on each bike’s battery charge. Something very important to many of its clients, its IT team has been able to integrate their MaaS (mobility as a service) vision in its system. Not only do they provide the systems themselves, but also provide the back end and tech support needed to operate bike-sharing systems. It has been able to integrate many city transit cards in order to allow them to unlock bikes, for instance.

Meet the CEO

Luc Sabbatini is CEO of PBSC, a leading global provider of sustainable mobility solutions for smart cities.

Deeply passionate about innovation, design, technology, and urban planning, each of Luc’s professional endeavours has destined him to hold his current role at PBSC. At Bell Media, he spearheaded the media activities of one of the world’s largest telecommunications providers. Luc strives to shape a world where every person can fulfill their purpose by taking advantage of the most affordable, sustainable and efficient mobility solutions possible. Over the past couple of years, Luc has propelled the growth of PBSC, to a world-renowned micromobility reference in the development, deployment and operation of bike sharing technologies.

A graduate of both HEC Montréal and Harvard University, Luc lives for PBSC’s vision, to change the world one city at a time, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of bike share users every day to join the movement. He’s featured in the featured in the prestigious Top 40 Under 40 list, and regularly shares his views on urban tech and mobility-as-a-service at conferences and industry events such as the World Cities Summit and the Ferrovial Mobility Executive Forum.

Fact: SVLS was translated into Public Bike Sharing Company (or PBSC) in English.

“PBSC provides cities with bike share systems that reduce congestion and improve livability in cities while offering users a safe, convenient and enjoyable way to move around.”