Bitola wants to become a „city of bicycles" - and this time it's not just a slogan in some plan that ends up in a drawer. Mayor Toni Konjanovski announced a new project at a Council session: electric bikes for rent at several locations across the city, available via a mobile app at what they call „symbolic prices."

4,800,000 denars have been set aside for the bike procurement in the 2026 Environmental Programme. According to Council president Bojan Bojkovski, citizens will be able to rent a bike at several points and make use of the newly built cycling lanes in the city.

The idea is good and long overdue - shared-bike systems work in dozens of European cities and genuinely ease the load on the streets. The question, as always here, isn't in the announcement but in the upkeep: who'll fix the broken bikes, who'll charge the batteries, and whether in two years the bikes will be functional or scattered and smashed the way more than one similar project across Macedonia has ended.

For now, the people of Bitola have reason for cautious optimism. If the project takes off as imagined, the city really does get something useful for daily life. But if it ends up as a photo op at the opening with bikes that will soon rust - then 4.8 million denars will be just another line on the long list of good ideas poorly executed.