Revolutionizing Public Transport with Bike Sharing Systems

Sudhir Gota

London Mayor’s ambition to increase cycling in the city by 400 percent in 25 years has resulted in development of a new bicycle sharing scheme which is being publicized as   "a new dawn for the bicycle in the capital“.

London is not alone.  Such systems exist in more than 260 areas/cities worldwide. These kind of schemes are formulated with the philosophy of collaborative consumption and the best thing is -it’s low cost, works best for short trip lengths and helps prevent sprawl and improves health. Many believe that like BRTS, these systems have the potential to transform public transport systems and also help in evolving public acceptability of bike as a means of active transport.

This system has evolved in last four decades - from simple painted, free-to-use bicycle system to coin-operated locking system to third generation systems using card reading technology. Experts believe that the next generation of schemes would be more techno-savvy i.e. demand-responsive and multi-modal systems.  Good overviews of such systems are available here and here. Rich resources are being daily updated here.

Source : CAI Asia

Statistics reveal that the Bike-share programs bring substantial numbers of new people into bicycling. The evaluation of different schemes suggests that substantial number of public bike riders used to make bus trips (46%) earlier.  Clearly, increasing the number of buses need not be the only sustainable solution for the planners.  Investigations show that such schemes do not have significant impact on current congestion levels.  The approximate shift from Cars, two wheelers and taxis is found to be only 12%.  But, one also needs to consider the future growth of vehicles and subsequent congestion and future infrastructure investment required to realize the impact of such systems.  The positive impact of such schemes on environment should not be neglected. Quick conservative assessment reveals that a small system in Asia with 1000 bikes on an average can reduce 120 tons of CO2 emissions/year or 120 kg’s of CO2 emissions per bike per year.  On economic terms, the savings may be less but then one needs to consider the long term impact on people’s mindset and the land use.

Why bike sharing system is so popular with people?

Reports reveal that in a survey in China many people were asked as to why they prefer public bike systems and they responded - 35% - Convenient for transfer, 32% - Saves time versus previous mode, 18% - Environmental Friendly and 16% - Convenience

 
View The Bike-sharing World Map in a larger map

 Source : http://bike-sharing.blogspot.com/

  

It’s clear that when technology and infrastructure are harmonized to create a cheap public transport sharing system, the results can be exciting. In fact in order to encourage short trips, these systems provide generally free service up to 60 minutes.  Reports suggest that on an average, the bikes are being used 2 to 16 times a day depending upon the location, scheme and city structure. Such is the popularity of the system that it is been developed, financed and managed by diverse set of stakeholders ranging from local governments, transport agencies, advertising companies, for-profit, and non-profit organizations.

System	VELIB’	BICING	BIXI	Beijing	Hangzhou	Nanchang	Wuhan
Operator	JCDecaux	ClearChannel Adshel	Sta onnement de Montréal	Fortune	Bicycle service	Xinfeida	Xinfieda
City	Paris	Barcelona	Montreal, Canada	Beijing	Hangzhou	Nanchang	Wuhan
Start Date	Jul-07	Mar-07	Spring 2009	Aug-05	May-08	Aug-09	Nov-08
Bicycles	20,600	6,000	5000	10,000	50,000	1000	20000
Bike Stations	1451	400	400	1000	2000	30	718
Rentals/day	12.5	16	15	2.32	8	4	5

The potential for bike sharing in Asia is huge. Researchers believe that more than 60 percent of the increase in the world's urban population over the next three decades will occur in Asia. To accommodate such a large population not only the cities would enlarge, number of cities would also increase rapidly. Bike sharing schemes with low cost and high performance can provide better solutions for cities having significant number of trips with short trip lengths (less than 6 km).  Mark my words – “The bike revolution would revolutionize public transport systems.  ”