How to Save Bike-Sharing: An Evidence-Based Survival Toolkit for Policy-Makers and Mobility Providers

Abstract

A new mobility ethos is needed for cities looking to overcome the problems that have been accumulated for decades by a transport paradigm that prioritises automobiles over people. Bike-sharing, a measure promoting voluntary travel behaviour change, could be part of a refined toolbox that will help in forging this new ethos. Despite a rapid emergence during the last handful of years, as evidenced by 1956 operational local schemes and approximately 15,254,400 self-service public use bicycles across the world, bike-sharing has been attracting negative attention lately. Tens of schemes have closed down, deemed as financial or operational failures, stigmatising bike-sharing's brand and putting the future of the concept itself in jeopardy. However, discounting bike-sharing as flawed may not be fair or accurate. This paper identifies a formula of success for bike-sharing operations based on a state-of-the-art case study analysis, which is supported by primary data evidence from two survey-based studies in Sweden and Greece. This paper suggests that residents in cities hosting or looking to host bike-sharing schemes are usually very supportive of them but not always likely to use them. More importantly, this paper delivers some key policy and business lessons that form a survival guide for effectively introducing and running public bicycle schemes. These lessons include, among others, the need for: tailoring the system design and expansion strategy according to the host city needs, city-operator and commercial partner synergies, more bike-friendly infrastructure and legislation, pro-active cultural engagement, anti-abuse measures, enhanced fleet management and realistic profit expectations.'as-needed' basis that could extend the reach of public transit services to final destinations and be a door-opener for increased bicycle usage [11].Bike-sharing, typically framed as an ideal and innovative first-and last-mile travel solution for congested metropolitan environments [12,13], and less often tested for the context of smaller and medium cities [14], is now more relevant than ever before [15]. The recent game-changing introduction of stationless and free-floating schemes where bicycles are unleashed from docking stations, allowing users an extra layer of mobility freedom [16], expanded the traditional dock-based bike-sharing provision and transformed the concept into one with a door-to-door travel potential. Bike-sharing has, from that point onwards, emerged rapidly across the globe, with 1956 operational schemes and approximately 15,254,400 self-service public bicycles and pedelecs in use [17], as an easily implementable modal shift mechanism that is iconic for the host city's commitment to sustainable transport operations [18,19].However, at the same time bike-sharing, especially with a growing number of reckless and under-designed implementations of dockless systems, is attracting negative attention, with numerous schemes shutting down as huge financial or operational failures. This has forced usually smaller bike-sharin...

Socio-Ecological Predictors of Frequent Bike Share Trips: Do Purposes Matter?

“…The study conducted in Belgium also found that having significant others to cycle with (accompany effect) or without (modeling effect) could both predict cycling for commute [ 23 ]. Indeed, literature suggests one of the keys to a successful bike share is to encourage people to adopt a positive attitude towards these bikes [ 44 ]. Research also recommends using multistage behavior change theory to align interventions with user readiness to turning intentions to use bike share into actions [ 45 ].…”

“…As dockless bike share systems increase users’ access to service and hold promise for offering equitable access to bike share, it is important to understand the impact of the emergence of dockless bike share services [ 4 , 48 ]. When bike share system data can be linked to users’ survey data, researchers can further extend this study to examine the effects of socio-ecological predictors on travel characteristics, such as travel distance and travel time [ 44 , 49 ]. In addition, the data were collected using online surveys.…”

Study on Clustering of Free-Floating Bike-Sharing Parking Time Series in Beijing Subway Stations

“…Scholars began to pay attention to the practical problems that FFBS has to face, such as parking disorder and unbalanced distribution of bikes. Nikitas [14] pointed out that oversupply is a fatal reason for OFO's launch failure in the UK. Similarly, unlimited bikes supply, unbalanced parking, and parking disorder resulted in common challenges to the FFBS in China, which became worse around subway stations [6,15].…”

Investigating the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urban Vitality Using Bicycle-Sharing Data

“…In addition to those benefits concerning traffic efficiency and environmental sustainability, a bicycle-sharing system also supports multimodal transport connections by acting as a "last mile" connection to public transport [21]. In recent years, with the rapid implement of bicycle-sharing systems across the globe, a growing interest has been drawn on the application of bicycle-sharing data [21][22][23]. Caulfield et al examined the usage patterns of bicycle-sharing in Cork, Ireland, and found that bicycle-sharing usage was associated with weather condition and travel distance [24].…”

“…Bakogiannis et al analysed the efficiency of a bicycle-sharing system in Rethimno, Greece, and reported that the bicycle-sharing system was primarily used for short distance trips, and traffic safety concern coupled with service limitation were the two factors affecting bicycle-sharing usage [25]. Most studies focus on the bicycle-sharing usage pattern allied with its corresponding influence factors [20][21][22][23]26,27], less often paying attention to the interaction between the bicycle-sharing users and urban dynamics. It follows that if we attempt to encourage more bicycle usage as a way to progress towards a more sustainable transport system, there is a compelling need to investigate the intra-city movement of cyclists as well as the urban dynamics characterised by those cyclists.…”