Cemusa, an FCC Group company that is a leader in the field of urban furniture and outdoor advertising, is to implement a pilot bicycle rental scheme in Rome.

The pilot programme, which will initially run for 6 months, will consist of 250 bicycles and 22 rental stations in Rome's historic central district.

This innovative automatic system of public transport allows members of the public to rent a bicycle for a given time period and then return it to any of the rental stations in the city.

The service will provide clear benefits for users and the urban environment: lower traffic congestion, less energy consumption, no parking problems, and elimination of atmospheric and noise pollution.

Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome: "It will now be easier, faster, cheaper and more ecological to get around in central Rome thanks to the experimental Bike-sharing system that we have decided to install, first in the historic central district and later throughout the city".

With the pilot programme, which is due to start early in 2008, the city expects to obtain data and draw conclusions with regard to launching a city-wide scheme with up to 20,000 bicycles.

Following a successful implementation in Pamplona, the Rome contract establishes Cemusa as a manager of bike rental systems in big cities.

Cemusa has been operating in Italy since 2001, when it obtained the Genoa urban furniture contract. One year later, it obtained the Parma contract, and in 2005 it was awarded a contract to install and exploit the advertising on urban furniture in Bologna. Last year, Cemusa installed 96 hoardings in central Milan as part of the project to restore the "Spanish Walls", which are the city's old fortifications.

Cemusa currently manages over 160,000 items of urban furniture and advertising stands in 160 cities in 13 countries in Europe and the Americas.