IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i6p1539-d213704.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rethinking the Utility of Public Bicycles: The Development and Challenges of Station-Less Bike Sharing in China

Author

Listed:
  • Jiaoe Wang

    (State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Jie Huang

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Michael Dunford

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QN, Sussex, UK)

Abstract

Cycling is known to be environmentally friendly and beneficial to public health and sustainable urban development. Cycling has recently increased in Chinese cities as a result of the emergence of station-less bike-sharing systems. This study examines the emergence, rapid growth and consolidation of station-less bike-sharing systems and the role of suppliers, users and government regulators. It shows that these systems developed unevenly, growing most in large cities in eastern and south-eastern China, and explores the relationship between this spatial distribution and the nature of the service and the socio-economic characteristics of cities. To investigate patterns of, and reasons for, the use of these systems, this research also reports the results of a survey of users and non-users, identifying their gender, age, income characteristics and attitudes to station-less systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiaoe Wang & Jie Huang & Michael Dunford, 2019. "Rethinking the Utility of Public Bicycles: The Development and Challenges of Station-Less Bike Sharing in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1539-:d:213704
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1539/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1539/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Médard de Chardon, Cyrille & Caruso, Geoffrey & Thomas, Isabelle, 2016. "Bike-share rebalancing strategies, patterns, and purpose," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 22-39.
    2. Piwek, Lukasz & Joinson, Adam & Morvan, James, 2015. "The use of self-monitoring solutions amongst cyclists: An online survey and empirical study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 126-136.
    3. Behrendt, Frauke, 2016. "Why cycling matters for Smart Cities. Internet of Bicycles for Intelligent Transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 157-164.
    4. Jessica Schoner & David Levinson, 2014. "The missing link: bicycle infrastructure networks and ridership in 74 US cities," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(6), pages 1187-1204, November.
    5. Christine Fricker & Nicolas Gast, 2016. "Incentives and redistribution in homogeneous bike-sharing systems with stations of finite capacity," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 5(3), pages 261-291, August.
    6. Shaheen, Susan & Guzman, Stacey & Zhang, Hua, 2010. "Bikesharing in Europe, the Americas, and Asia: Past, Present, and Future," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt79v822k5, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    7. Chen, Shang-Yu, 2016. "Green helpfulness or fun? Influences of green perceived value on the green loyalty of users and non-users of public bikes," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 149-159.
    8. Advait Sarkar & Neal Lathia & Cecilia Mascolo, 2015. "Comparing cities’ cycling patterns using online shared bicycle maps," Transportation, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 541-559, July.
    9. Zhibin Li & Wei Wang & Chen Yang & Haoyang Ding, 2017. "Bicycle mode share in China: a city-level analysis of long term trends," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 773-788, July.
    10. Shaheen, Susan & Martin, Elliot, 2015. "Unraveling the Modal Impacts of Bikesharing," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt3cd802js, University of California Transportation Center.
    11. Audikana, Ander & Ravalet, Emmanuel & Baranger, Virginie & Kaufmann, Vincent, 2017. "Implementing bikesharing systems in small cities: Evidence from the Swiss experience," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 18-28.
    12. Shaheen, Susan PhD & Martin, Elliot PhD & Cohen, Adam, 2013. "Public Bikesharing and Modal Shift Behavior: A Comparative Study of Early Bikesharing Systems in North America," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt7010k9p3, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    13. Liu, Tao & Ceder, Avishai (Avi), 2015. "Analysis of a new public-transport-service concept: Customized bus in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 63-76.
    14. Parkes, Stephen & Mardsen, Greg & Shaheen, Susan PhD & Cohen, Adam, 2013. "Understanding the Diffusion of Public Bikesharing Systems: Evidence from Europe and North America," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt3qr9h2pr, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    15. Shaheen, Susan A & Guzman, Stacey & Zhang, Hua, 2010. "Bikesharing in Europe, the Americas, and Asia: Past, Present and Future," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt6qg8q6ft, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    16. O’Brien, Oliver & Cheshire, James & Batty, Michael, 2014. "Mining bicycle sharing data for generating insights into sustainable transport systems," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 262-273.
    17. Caulfield, Brian & O'Mahony, Margaret & Brazil, William & Weldon, Peter, 2017. "Examining usage patterns of a bike-sharing scheme in a medium sized city," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 152-161.
    18. Erdoğan, Güneş & Laporte, Gilbert & Wolfler Calvo, Roberto, 2014. "The static bicycle relocation problem with demand intervals," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 238(2), pages 451-457.
    19. Vogel, Marie & Hamon, Ronan & Lozenguez, Guillaume & Merchez, Luc & Abry, Patrice & Barnier, Julien & Borgnat, Pierre & Flandrin, Patrick & Mallon, Isabelle & Robardet, Céline, 2014. "From bicycle sharing system movements to users: a typology of Vélo’v cyclists in Lyon based on large-scale behavioural dataset," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 280-291.
    20. Parkes, Stephen D. & Marsden, Greg & Shaheen, Susan A. & Cohen, Adam P., 2013. "Understanding the diffusion of public bikesharing systems: evidence from Europe and North America," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 94-103.
    21. Zhao, Pengjun & Li, Shengxiao, 2017. "Bicycle-metro integration in a growing city: The determinants of cycling as a transfer mode in metro station areas in Beijing," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 46-60.
    22. Martens, Karel, 2007. "Promoting bike-and-ride: The Dutch experience," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 326-338, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tianjian Yang & Ye Li & Simin Zhou & Yu Zhang, 2019. "Dynamic Feedback Analysis of Influencing Factors and Challenges of Dockless Bike-Sharing Sustainability in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Shaheen, Susan & Cohen, Adam & Broader, Jacquelyn, 2022. "Shared Micromobility: Policy, Practices, and Emerging Futures," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt8xc1k3rw, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    3. Seonghoon Ban & Kyung Hoon Hyun, 2019. "Designing a User Participation-Based Bike Rebalancing Service," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-14, April.
    4. De Zhao & Ghim Ping Ong & Wei Wang & Wei Zhou, 2021. "Estimating Public Bicycle Trip Characteristics with Consideration of Built Environment Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-13, January.
    5. Ma, Xinwei & Ji, Yanjie & Yuan, Yufei & Van Oort, Niels & Jin, Yuchuan & Hoogendoorn, Serge, 2020. "A comparison in travel patterns and determinants of user demand between docked and dockless bike-sharing systems using multi-sourced data," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 148-173.
    6. Si, Hongyun & Su, Yangyue & Wu, Guangdong & Liu, Bingsheng & Zhao, Xianbo, 2020. "Understanding bike-sharing users’ willingness to participate in repairing damaged bicycles: Evidence from China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 203-220.
    7. Jing Wu & Changlong Ling & Xinzhuo Li, 2019. "Study on the Accessibility and Recreational Development Potential of Lakeside Areas Based on Bike-Sharing Big Data Taking Wuhan City as an Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Das, H.S. & Rahman, M.M. & Li, S. & Tan, C.W., 2020. "Electric vehicles standards, charging infrastructure, and impact on grid integration: A technological review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Xinwei & Ji, Yanjie & Yuan, Yufei & Van Oort, Niels & Jin, Yuchuan & Hoogendoorn, Serge, 2020. "A comparison in travel patterns and determinants of user demand between docked and dockless bike-sharing systems using multi-sourced data," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 148-173.
    2. Ma, Xinwei & Ji, Yanjie & Yang, Mingyuan & Jin, Yuchuan & Tan, Xu, 2018. "Understanding bikeshare mode as a feeder to metro by isolating metro-bikeshare transfers from smart card data," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 57-69.
    3. Cai Jia & Yanyan Chen & Tingzhao Chen & Yanan Li & Luzhou Lin, 2022. "Evolutionary Game Analysis on Sharing Bicycles and Metro Strategies: Impact of Phasing out Subsidies for Bicycle–Metro Integration Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Saberi, Meead & Ghamami, Mehrnaz & Gu, Yi & Shojaei, Mohammad Hossein (Sam) & Fishman, Elliot, 2018. "Understanding the impacts of a public transit disruption on bicycle sharing mobility patterns: A case of Tube strike in London," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 154-166.
    5. Raux, Charles & Zoubir, Ayman & Geyik, Mirkan, 2017. "Who are bike sharing schemes members and do they travel differently? The case of Lyon’s “Velo’v” scheme," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 350-363.
    6. Médard de Chardon, Cyrille & Caruso, Geoffrey, 2015. "Estimating bike-share trips using station level data," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 260-279.
    7. Kwiatkowski Michał Adam, 2018. "Urban Cycling as an Indicator of Socio-Economic Innovation and Sustainable Transport," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 37(4), pages 23-32, December.
    8. Morton, Craig, 2020. "The demand for cycle sharing: Examining the links between weather conditions, air quality levels, and cycling demand for regular and casual users," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    9. Morton, Craig & Kelley, Scott & Monsuur, Fredrik & Hui, Tianwen, 2021. "A spatial analysis of demand patterns on a bicycle sharing scheme: Evidence from London," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Radzimski, Adam & Dzięcielski, Michał, 2021. "Exploring the relationship between bike-sharing and public transport in Poznań, Poland," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 189-202.
    11. Médard de Chardon, Cyrille, 2019. "The contradictions of bike-share benefits, purposes and outcomes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 401-419.
    12. Caulfield, Brian & O'Mahony, Margaret & Brazil, William & Weldon, Peter, 2017. "Examining usage patterns of a bike-sharing scheme in a medium sized city," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 152-161.
    13. Elżbieta Macioszek & Paulina Świerk & Agata Kurek, 2020. "The Bike-Sharing System as an Element of Enhancing Sustainable Mobility—A Case Study based on a City in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-29, April.
    14. Todd, James & O'Brien, Oliver & Cheshire, James, 2021. "A global comparison of bicycle sharing systems," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    15. Fabio Kon & Éderson Cássio Ferreira & Higor Amario Souza & Fábio Duarte & Paolo Santi & Carlo Ratti, 2022. "Abstracting mobility flows from bike-sharing systems," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 545-581, October.
    16. Wang, Mingshu & Zhou, Xiaolu, 2017. "Bike-sharing systems and congestion: Evidence from US cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 147-154.
    17. Médard de Chardon, Cyrille & Caruso, Geoffrey & Thomas, Isabelle, 2016. "Bike-share rebalancing strategies, patterns, and purpose," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 22-39.
    18. Suzanne Maas & Paraskevas Nikolaou & Maria Attard & Loukas Dimitriou, 2021. "Heat, Hills and the High Season: A Model-Based Comparative Analysis of Spatio-Temporal Factors Affecting Shared Bicycle Use in Three Southern European Islands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.
    19. Xinwei Ma & Ruiming Cao & Jianbiao Wang, 2019. "Effects of Psychological Factors on Modal Shift from Car to Dockless Bike Sharing: A Case Study of Nanjing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-16, September.
    20. Xiaolu Zhou, 2015. "Understanding Spatiotemporal Patterns of Biking Behavior by Analyzing Massive Bike Sharing Data in Chicago," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1539-:d:213704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.