The brightly-coloured bike stations and bicycles which have become a part of the urban landscape of the Finnish capital will open for business early this year.
Helsinki transport officials have announced plans to start the city's bike rental scheme about a month early this year. Depending on weather conditions, the bikes will be rolled out sometime in April.
The transport agency also announced plans to raise the price of a season ticket (unlimited numbers of 30 minute rides) from last year's rate of 25 euros to 30 euros this year.
Fees for use of the bike longer than 30 minutes, or fines for not appropriately returning bikes, will remain the same as last year.
Espoo bikes to be placed near metro
The capital region's bike programme is continuing to expand into neighbouring Espoo. Eager bike borrowers can use the two-wheelers in either city, as long as they are signed up in one of them.
Espoo, which began its city bike programme last summer, will provide some 700 bikes at 70 stations this year, with a planned launch date of 2 May. The city plans to locate many of the bike stations near its recently-opened metro stations.
When the programme starts up in April, Helsinki will make available some 1,500 bikes at 150 stations across the city, which are detailed on this map from HSL.