PASS (Programii Alternativave Sociale Stimuluese, Social Stimulating Alternative Program) was established in 2002 with the goal of encouraging community action and raising public awareness of local social and environmental issues in the Albanian capital city of Tirana. PASS activities include operating a Welcome Center for families in need, involving local residents in resolving community problems through its Volunteer Action Movement, supporting the AKSES Program to foster the education and employment of rural youth, aiding the transition from school to work through the Employment Office, and facilitating youth community engagement through the Civil Youth Project.

With help from Pedals for Progress and the George Soros Open Society Foundations in Albania (OSFA), PASS established a Tirana Community Bicycle program, including the bike-sharing program Ecovolis.

Ecovolis

Ecovolis (EcoBike) is a bike-sharing program created by PASS in Tirana, Albania. Ecovolis promotes ecological transportation by giving Tirana cleaner air, adding a civic European practice that helps in the economic, social, and environmental development of our community.

Not only will Ecovolis provide jobs for workers maintaining and managing the bicycles, but the bikes themselves will help reduce the social and economic isolation of suburban and rural communities by providing dedicated transportation from the margins of Tirana to the center. An additional effect of the program will be to raise awareness among citizens of the bicycle as a fun, healthy, and environmentally sound method of transportation.

For more information:

• Click here to see a P4P report on Ecovolis from July 2012.
• For a P4P report on the bike program in its early days (April 2011), click here.
• Click here to see the Ecovolis facebook page.
• This blogspot on Ecovolis has great photos of the bikes and the people who work on them.