Milan introduced the rental bikes, by the name of BikeMe, late November. Initially there will be 1200 bicycles distributed over 103 stations in the town centre. The system is to grow to 5000 bicycles. The project was set up by Clearchannel, also active in towns like Barcelona, Washington and Oslo. The bicycles in Milan are considered as complementary to public transport and have been painted into the same colours as buses and trams. At the introduction, mayor Letizia Moratti emphasised these rental bikes should also be considered to be the start of plans to make the town more bicycle-friendly. In Rome the scheme is modest, for the time being. By mid-2008 200 rental bikes had been placed by the advertising company Cemuda. Numbers on use are highly satisfactory, with 2000 subscriptions the bicycles were rented 34.000 times.