Bicycle-sharing system

• 1. Origins And Early Experiments

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  In the summer of 1965, a group called Provo painted fifty bicycles white and placed them unlocked in Amsterdam for everyone to use freely. This so-called White Bicycle Plan provided free bicycles that were supposed to be used for one trip and then left for someone else. Within a month, most of the bikes had been stolen and the rest were found in nearby canals. The program is still active in some parts of the Netherlands, such as at Hoge Veluwe National Park where bikes may be used within the park. It originally existed as one in a series of White Plans proposed in the street magazine produced by the anarchist group PROVO. Years later, Schimmelpennink admitted that "the Sixties experiment never existed in the way people believe" and that "no more than about ten bikes" had been put out on the street "as a suggestion of the bigger idea." As the police had temporarily confiscated all of the White Bicycles within a day of their release to the public, the White Bicycle experiment had actually lasted less than one month.

• 2. Technological Generations Evolution

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  To prevent thefts, bike sharing programs gravitated to smart card control systems. One of the first 'smart bike' programs was the Grippa™ bike storage rack system used in Portsmouth (UK)'s Bikeabout system. The Bikeabout scheme was launched in October 1995 by the University of Portsmouth, UK as part of its Green Transport Plan in an effort to cut car travel by staff and students between campus sites. Funded in part by the EU's ENTRANCE program, the Bikeabout scheme was a "smart card" fully automated system. For a small fee, users were issued magnetic striped 'smart cards' readable at a covered 'bike store' kiosk, unlocking the bike from its storage rack. Station-located CCTV cameras limited vandalism. On arrival at the destination station, the smart card unlocked cycle rack and recorded the bike's return, registering if the bike was returned with damage or if the rental time exceeded a three-hour maximum. Implemented with an original budget of approximately £200,000, the Portsmouth Bikeabout scheme was never very successful in terms of rider usage. The Bikeabout program was discontinued by the university in 1998 in favor of expanded minibus service.

• 3. Global Expansion And Scale

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  By 2022, approximately 3,000 cities worldwide offer bike-sharing systems, including Dubai, New York, Paris, Mexico City, Montreal and Barcelona. Of the world's 15 biggest public bike share programs, 13 are in China. In 2012, the biggest are in Wuhan and Hangzhou, with around 90,000 and 60,000 bikes respectively. As of December 2016, roughly 1,000 cities worldwide have a bike-sharing program. The modern wave of electronically locked bikes took off in France. In 1998 the city of Rennes launched Velo a la cart using a magnetic card to release bicycles, which was operated by Clear Channel. Then the French advertising company, JCDecaux began launching larger systems in Vienna (2003), Lyon (2005), and Paris (2007), among others. Vélib', the Paris system captured the attention of the world and catalyzed steep growth in bikesharing systems around Europe, Asia, South America, and North America. In North America, the BIXI project launched by the City of Montreal in 2009 garnered a sizable ridership.

• 4. Economic Models And Financing

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  The financing of bicycle-sharing systems has been maintained by a combination of fees, volunteer labor, charity, advertisements, business interest groups and government subsidies. User rent fees may range from the equivalent of US$0.50 to 30.00 per day, with rent fees for 15- or 20-minute intervals ranging from a few cents to $1.00. Many bike-share systems offer subscriptions that make the first 30, 45 minutes of use either free or very inexpensive. Several European cities, including the French cities of Lyon and Paris as well as London, Barcelona, Stockholm and Oslo, have signed contracts with private advertising agencies like JCDecaux and Clear Channel which supply the city with thousands of bicycles free of charge. In return, the agencies are allowed to advertise both on the bikes themselves and in other select locations in the city. Municipalities have operated and do operate bicycle share systems as a public service, paying for the initial investment, maintenance and operations if it is not covered by other revenue sources.

• 5. Urban Planning And Infrastructure

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  Bicycle-sharing systems have also been cited as a way to solve the "last mile" problem of public transport networks. According to research conducted on YouBike system in Taipei, in 2014, the bike sharing system in residential areas was more popular as a first/last mile of transport mode to and from the station to their desired locations. The integration of YouBike stations and Taipei Metro aims at solving the "last mile" problem, thus improving transit accessibility and usability. Commuters can check in or check out YouBikes near the metro stations to catch connections from the station to their destination. Starting the 30th of March 2021, passengers renting a YouBike from any YouBike station in the Taipei, Keelung metropolitan area receive a discount of NT$5 when using their EasyCard to transfer between YouBike and Taipei Metro, local buses or Danhai LRT within one hour. In Medellín, an attempt was made to solve the demand problem with statistical analysis using historical data. The result of this analysis was the establishment of a heterogeneous bicycle fleet, with a minimum and maximum number for each station.

• 6. Social Impact And Health Benefits

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  A study published in 2016 found that the bike sharing system in Shanghai saved 8,358 tonnes of petrol and decreased carbon dioxide and NOx emissions by 25,240 and 64 tonnes respectively. A separate study on transportation in Australia estimated that 1.5 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions are avoided by an urban resident who travels 5 kilometers by cycling rather than by car during rush hour periods. Bicycle-sharing systems have been shown to have a strong net positive health effect. Cycling is a good way for exercise and stress relief. It can increase recreation and improve sociability of a city, which make people live more happy and relaxed. The report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point out that cycling also helps prevent disease like obesity, heart disease (can reduce up to 82%) and diabetes (can reduce up to 58%). Therefore, bicycle-sharing systems has a positive effect on mental and physical health, which attract more people to use.

• 7. Regulatory Challenges And Criticism

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  In some cities, the many dockless bike-share bicycles have cluttered streets and sidewalks, degrading the urban aesthetic environment and blocking pedestrian traffic. In particular, cycles on Chinese city streets have created sections of clogged sidewalks no longer walkable, and piles of illegally parked bicycles. Dockless cycles left randomly on public footpaths may impede access for wheelchair users and others who use mobility aids, and may be dangerous to people with visual impairments. The Chinese bicycle-sharing market demonstrated the danger of over-supply in 2018. Companies took advantage of unclear regulations in the preceding years to introduce millions of shared bikes to the country's cities. Users were not educated in how to use the systems properly and in many cases treated them as disposable, parking them anywhere. City governments were forced to impound the abandoned bikes when they blocked public thoroughfares, and millions of bikes went directly to junkyards after the companies that owned them went bankrupt. Other critics claim that bike-share programs fail to reach more low-income communities.