Bicycle-sharing system
[20][21][22] 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.
[21][22][23] 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.
[21] Implemented with an original budget of approximately £200,000, the Portsmouth Bikeabout scheme was never very successful in terms of rider usage,[24] in part due to the limited number of bike kiosks and hours of operation.
[25][26] One of the first community bicycle projects in the United States was started in Portland, Oregon in 1994 by civic and environmental activists Tom O'Keefe, Joe Keating and Steve Gunther.
However, theft rates in many bike-sharing programmes remain high, as most shared-use bicycles have value only as basic transport, and may be resold to unsuspecting buyers after being cleaned and repainted.
Bicycle repair and maintenance are done by a volunteer project or from the municipality contracted operator but also can be, and sometimes is, completed by individual users who find a defect on a free bike.
The bicycles, designed for intense utilitarian use with solid rubber tires and wheels with advertising plates, have a slot into which a shopping cart return key can be pushed.
In recent years, in an effort to reduce losses from theft and vandalism, many bike-sharing schemes now require a user to provide a monetary deposit or other security, or to become a paid subscriber.
[40][41] The smart card contactless technology was experimented in Vienna (Citybike Wien) and implemented at a large scale in 2005 in Lyon (Vélo'v) and in 2007 in Paris (Vélib').
[16][14] As of June 2014[update], public bike share systems were available in 50 countries on five continents, including 712 cities, operating approximately 806,200 bicycles at 37,500 stations.
[48] Recent technological and operational improvements by telephones and GPSs have paved the way for dramatic increase of this type of private app driven "dockless" bicycle-sharing system.
[53][54] However, the rapid growth vastly outpaced immediate demand and overwhelmed Chinese cities, where infrastructure and regulations were not prepared to handle a sudden flood of millions of shared bicycles.
In some jurisdictions, authorities have confiscated "rogue" dockless bicycles that are improperly parked for potentially blocking pedestrian traffic on sidewalks[58] and in other cases new laws have been introduced to regulate the shared bikes.
[61] In the United States, many major metropolitan areas are experimenting with dockless bikeshare systems, which have been popular with commuters but subject to complaints about illegal parking.
Their central concept is to provide free or affordable access to bicycles for short-distance trips in an urban area as an alternative to private vehicles, thereby reducing congestion, noise, and air pollution.
In other cases, like Youbike in Taipei, Taiwan, the bicycle sharing system is built by a private company partner with the public transport sector through BOT mode.
[75] In 2010, three EAFIT students (Lina Marcela López, José Agusto Ocampo, and Felipe Gutiérrez) developed the idea of the EnCicla bike sharing system as part of their final project.
[98] Deutsche Bahn Connect is committed to setting up and operating a public bike sharing system with fixed rental stations within the city boundaries.
[99] In addition, the study shows that the city bike has a positive image among users, they are largely satisfied with the service and recognize environmental and health benefits.
This includes the use of advanced prediction models to balance the load effectively by forecasting bike-sharing activity and addressing underflow and overflow issues dynamically.
[103] [needs update] The financing of bicycle-sharing system have been maintained by a combination of fees, volunteer, charity, advertisements, business interest groups and government subsidies.
GPS traceable vehicle commute patterns and usage habits present valuable data for government agencies, marketing companies or researchers.
Since Paris's Vélib' programme operates with an increasing fee past the free first half-hour, users have a strong disincentive to take the bicycles out of the city centre.
[112] A separate study on Washington, D.C.'s Capital Bikeshare found that the bike-share program contributed a 2 to 3 percent reduction in traffic congestion within the evaluated neighborhood.
[113] 2017 studies in Beijing and Shanghai have linked the massive increase of dockless bike shares to the decrease in the number of private automobile trips that are less than five kilometres.
[113] A separate study of 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.
(Demand increase)[118] Bike-share programs, especially the earlier services that required docking areas along urban streets, may encroach upon the space available for on-street car parking and other auto-centric uses.
[121] 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.
[123][113] The bike-sharing market does not produce at the social optimum, justifying the need for government intervention in the form of a subsidy for the provision of this good in order to internalize the positive externality.
A 2012 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that Toronto's cyclists were 30–50% more likely to be involved in an accident on major roads without cycle lanes than on those with.
